Thu, Nov 13, 2025
A A A
Welcome Guest
Free Trial RSS pod
Get FREE trial access to our award winning publications
Industry Updates

Golding study: funds of funds reduce volatility in private markets by 90%

Thursday, December 01, 2022
Opalesque Industry Update - Golding Capital Partners, a European independent asset manager for alternative investments, has quantified in a new study the diversification advantages of private market funds of funds compared with individual funds and direct investments in operating portfolio companies.

On the basis of over 100,000 data points from 2000 to 2021 the study measures both the short-term and long-term performance of investments over their entire lifetime, as expressed by the quarterly return and the multiple of money (TVPI, Total Value to Paid-In). The significant advantage of up to 90 per cent for risk diversification by means of funds of funds is confirmed for the buyout asset class and fundamentally also for infrastructure and private credit.

"The aim of the study is to back up intuitive conclusions from decades of investment experience with concrete historical data. By exactly how much do funds of funds reduce investors' risk of loss, especially in private markets? Another particularly interesting aspect was the comparison between the asset classes buyout, infrastructure and private credit. And indeed, in all three cases we can definitely recommend the vast majority of investors to diversify via funds of funds. Both in the short and long term, diversification - especially across several parameters - makes a decisive contribution towards stabilising portfolios and smoothing cash flows", says Dr Matthias Reicherter, Managing Partner and CIO at Golding.

"In the specific case of CRR III the legislators should readjust the current reform proposals. Banks and savings banks should not have to use the same high capital adequacy ratios for broadly diversified funds of funds, with their demonstrably stable risk-return profile, as for much more volatile individual fund investments. This one-size-fits-all approach ignores the differences in the risk profiles and so could even encourage banks to make much riskier investments. This would run counter to the declared objective of making bank balance sheets more resilient", adds Christian Schnabel, Managing Director at Golding.

The positive impact of diversification on income volatility is clearest in the buyout asset class. In the short-term analysis, the standard deviation of quarterly returns from direct investments in portfolio companies is 72 per cent, compared with 26 per cent for individual funds (primary funds) and just five per cent for funds of funds. This represents a reduction in volatility of 93 per cent. For the asset classes infrastructure and private credit the data history does not go back quite as far, but the reduction effect here too is around 90 per cent.

In the long-term analysis on the basis of multiples of money (TVPI), the stabilising effect is even more marked. Whereas a quarter of all investments in portfolio companies between 2001 and 2021 returned no more than the invested capital, investments in primary funds had the same probability of multiplying the invested capital by a factor of up to 1.23. For funds of funds the figure for the multiple of money was as high as 1.5. In five per cent of the observed cases the investments in portfolio companies turned out to be a write-off, whereas investments in portfolio funds experienced a loss with a multiple of 0.8. By contrast, the worst five per cent of funds of funds still generated a positive multiple of up to 1.15. This demonstrates that, from a historical perspective, the risk of losses for funds of funds investments in the buyout sector can be virtually ruled out - as long as investors (are able to) plan accordingly for the long term.

Press release
Bg

Article source - Opalesque is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

What do you think?

   Use "anonymous" as my name    |   Alert me via email on new comments   |   
Previous Opalesque Exclusives                                  
Previous Other Voices                                               
Access Alternative Market Briefing

 



  • Top Forwarded
  • Top Tracked
  • Top Searched
  1. Global fintech investment slumps to seven-year low of $95.6bn[more]

    Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: Global fintech investment plummeted to $95.6 billion across 4,639 deals in 2024, marking its lowest level since 2017, as investors grappled with persistent macroeconomic challenges and geopolitical tensions, revealed a study. According to the Pulse of Fintech H2'

  2. Opalesque Exclusive: Private capital deal value climbed 19% in 2024[more]

    Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: Private capital deal value climbed 19% in 2024, according to the latest data from the Global Private Capital Association. Growth was driven by big-ticket investments across Southeast Asia, Latin America and Central & Eastern Europe (CEE). Investor confidence

  3. Opalesque Roundup: Citco: 77% of hedge funds achieved positive returns in January 2025: hedge fund news[more]

    In the week ending February 21st, 2025, a report revealed that hedge funds enjoyed one of their best opening months this decade in January, as Equity and Multi-Strategy funds posted strong returns. Funds administered by the Citco group of companies (Citco) delivered a weighted average return of 4%,

  4. Opalesque exclusive: Permuto's new equity unbundling product to change investment model[more]

    Opalesque Geneva for New Managers: Here is a different way of owning stocks coming to you soon: the option of holding just the dividend portion of a stock, independent of its price movements. Or capturing the stock&

  5. Opalesque Exclusive: Hedge funds outperform mutual funds in managing extreme risk contagion - key insights for investors[more]

    Matthias Knab, Opalesque for New Managers: Hedge funds and mutual funds are among the most prominent vehicles for investors seeking growth and diversification. However, a critical question persists: which fund ty