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Buy and Hold: the role of long-term private capital in your portfolio

12 min read
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Private equity investing has largely been synonymous with the model of a 10-year fund. However, over the last few years general partners (GPs) have been raising longer-dated funds with fund lives of up to 20 years, representing a new chapter for private equity.

Under the traditional approach, the GP looks to implement a series of value-adding initiatives in quick succession before the fund life matures. Consequently, the average holding period of an asset for a private equity owner is between three and five years.

While the traditional private equity approach has been highly successful, there is a large set of businesses that do not conform to the traditional criteria, but nonetheless have attractive qualities and the ability to create value over the longer term. Specialist long-dated private equity strategies have formed to address this gap. These Long-Term Private Capital strategies are complementary to traditional private equity models and the benefits they offer may help investors fill specific niches in their alternative asset allocations.

Unlisted infrastructure is moving out of the ‘alternatives’ category and sitting beside other unlisted asset classes such as unlisted property. This is especially true for long-term patient capital where infrastructure portfolios can provide a strong foundation for relatively stable long term returns.

Alex Joiner
IFM Chief Economist
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Meet the author

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Jeremy Larkin

Jeremy joined IFM Investors in November 2019 and leads our Long Term Private Capital strategy. Prior to joining IFM Investors, Jeremy spent more than 25 years as a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank and was one of Australia’s leading senior investment banking practitioners.

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