Scale, Scope, and Speed in Private Capital Funds

The substantial growth in both size and scope of the private fund industry has resulted in much discussion about the effects of this growth on performance. In this white paper we examine how a range of size and growth characteristics are related to market-adjusted fund performance. More specifically, we use detailed MSCI-Burgiss data to investigate how private fund performance is related to total capital committed to an investment strategy,  fund size, and fund size growth from the previous fund, among other factors. Our analysis is the most comprehensive to date and utilizes a global sample of 10,276 buyout, venture capital, credit, infrastructure & natural resource, and real estate funds representing 8.7 trillion USD in committed capital.

Authors

Gregory Brown, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School & Institute for Private Capital
Elyas Fermand, Santa Clara University
Wendy Hu, MSCI
Richard Maxwell, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
William Volckmann, UNC Institute for Private Capital