Our approach

Delivering consistently strong returns through a flexible mandate and highly selective approach that strikes the right balance between concentration and diversification, risk and reward.

We are unique in the listed private equity sector, combining in-house directly managed unquoted investments with those managed by third parties, both directly and through funds.

Focused strategy

We are focused on profitable, cash generative private companies primarily in Europe and the US with a selective approach, aiming for strong and consistent returns.

Flexible mandate

Our mandate allows us to be nimble and take advantage of opportunities to adjust the mix of investments dependent on market conditions, developments in the portfolio, the flow of opportunities and relative value.

This flexibility allows us both to enhance returns and to manage risk. We enhance returns through increasing our weighting to attractive assets and we manage risk through our disciplined approach, active portfolio management and diversification.

Balancing concentration with diversification

The balance of risk and reward varies between our portfolio of leading private equity funds and our high conviction investments.

Concentration

We proactively increase exposure to companies that we have a high conviction will outperform through the cycle through co-investments and secondary fund investments, enhancing returns and increasing visibility and control on underlying performance drivers. These investments sit alongside ICG funds in our high conviction portfolio.

We mitigate the more concentrated risk in our high conviction portfolio through a highly selective approach, a focus on defensive growth and close monitoring of performance.

Diversification

Our portfolio of leading third party private equity funds provides a diversified base of strong returns and forms the foundation of our strategy. It is also the key source of deal flow for third party co-investments and secondary fund investments in our high conviction portfolio and provides insights that inform the management of the portfolio as a whole.

We manage risk in our funds portfolio through diversification, strict application of our investment criteria and close monitoring of performance.

Returns to 31 July 2020