After spending much of the 2010s trading at somewhat narrower discounts, private equity trusts saw their ratings deteriorate sharply in 2022 to their widest level since the financial crisis. While discounts across the sector have narrowed a little since, most still trade at wider than 20% despite their fairly impressive long-term performance records. In this article, we look at the history of private equity discounts, how they have varied by trust, and what steps each is taking to improve its rating. In short, while much progress has been made over the last couple of years, some trusts have ma...
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HgCapital Trust (ticker: HGT) was launched in 1989 and has been one of the best-performing trusts over the last 30 years. It invests in around 50 unquoted companies, held via various private equity funds run by Hg Capital, and specialises in Northern European software companies that cover B2B services such as Tax & Accounting, ERP & Payroll, Legal & Compliance, and Insurance. Over the 20 years to December 2024, its annualised NAV return was 15.3% versus 6.9% for the FTSE All-Share. Returns have been even higher over the last decade after HGT narrowed its focus from a broader range ...
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Stuart's profile of BH Macro duly appeared this week and his next subject will be will be looking at 3i, the large but idiosyncratic private equity group, whose investment in the European retail chain Action has been one of the more remarkable successes of recent years. In this week's notes I continue to look at what other investors I follow are saying and doing, while I ponder where we go from here and how best to navigate the coming months.
Something different today? As you may know I do some occasional podcasts and interviews for Master Investor and spoke at their big annual investor ev...
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HgCapital, a specialised private equity trust, has been one of the stellar performers of the last few decades, posting an annual net asset total return of 14.3% over the last 20 years. It's become increasingly focused on tech investments, particularly software and services, and often trades at a premium to net assets unlike much of the rest of the private equity sector.
Private equity has often been a difficult sector to navigate for fans of investment trusts. The charges are very high and it can be hard to get much detail on exactly what a particular trust is invested in and how well the un...
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