Investment Strategies of Institutional Investors: The Private Equity Case

Private equity involves investments in companies not quoted on a stock exchange. Many institutional investors find private equity an interesting asset class because of potential diversification benefits and higher expected risk-adjusted returns compared to other investments. We observe that institutional investors adopt diverse private equity investment strategies. Little is known about the performance and determinants of these investment strategies due to the high level of confidentiality in the market and the lack of academic scrutiny. Insights into successful investment strategies can be adopted by PGGM Private Equity, the principal of our study, in order to shape an appropriate investment strategy that corresponds to their level of ambition and risk appetite. The research question of our study is: What private equity investment strategies of institutional investors have been successful and why? In order to solve this question, we and analyze investment strategies in three parts; (1) a literature review, (2) a peer analysis, and (3) cash flow modeling.