Investing in Private Equity Partnerships: The Role of Monitoring and Reporting

The private equity industry has experienced rapid growth on a global scale in recent years. Institutional investors nowadays see private equity as a core element of their portfolios and have increased their allocation to this asset class accordingly. With the private equity industry becoming more mature and institutional investors - coming more experienced with the asset class, the debate on the industry’s transp- ency has intensified. In order to manage their exposure to private equity effectively, institutional investors demand increased levels of transparency and disclosure from private equity fund managers. Are these calls justified? What information do private equity fund investors actually need? Are private equity fund managers providing suf- cient reporting? Kay Müller’s distinguished dissertation sheds light on these questions. For the first time, he provides empirical analysis combining the perspective of private equity fund investors and managers. On the basis of a comprehensive set of interviews with le- ing European private equity fund investors, he presents an in-depth insight into the monitoring activities of institutional investors and explores their information requi- ments. These results are then contrasted with the actual reporting by fund managers based on a disclosure study of a unique sample of private equity fund reports. The analysis reveals several important information gaps and provides guidance on areas for improvements. The focus of this book is the relationship between investors and fund managers, which is at the heart of the private equity industry.