Performance Analyser FAQs

Performance Analyser FAQs

What do you mean by ‘performance data’?

This is performance at portfolio company level - direct private equity investments, calculated on exactly dated cash flows. 

Is this fund performance data?

No. Most ‘performance’ data available is normally at fund level.  Private Equity Insight’s Performance Module, powered by CEPRES, is more meaningful for the direct investment process as it drills down to performance at portfolio company level. The data is displayed in an aggregated format so that users can compare their performance against a representative peer group sample of deals with similar characteristics (market/industry sector, geographic location, deal type, investment date or any combination of these 4 criteria), but not with the performance of specific single deals or a basket of one fund managers’ deals, which would clearly be a breach of confidentiality.

How can this data help me?

The data can be used in all stages of the investment process:
Deal origination – compare your forecast performance projections with hard performance data from historic deals
Benchmarking – track the performance of your own portfolio investments alongside that of similar deals
Track performance excellence within your investment teams – who in your team are consistently doing the deals which are performing above, or below, the industry average? Which market sectors are performing best for you? 
Identify trends – a portfolio company of yours may be seeing an unexpected dip in performance – is this a trend of deals of that type, size or age?
Exit strategy – when have similar portfolio companies looked to have peaked in terms of performance? Is your exit timing strategy still on course to provide the best returns possible for this investment year peer group?

How is this data collected?

Private Equity Insight has a well-established relationship with CEPRES GmbH (Center of Private Equity Research), the world’s leading academic institute for private equity research, and the two organisations have formed a partnership to offer an integrated performance module to the deals and fundraising data accessible via the Private Equity Insight database. The underlying performance data is supplied by CEPRES but within the familiar search framework of Private Equity Insight.

How does CEPRES get this data?

CEPRES has developed an outstanding and world-renowned reputation for their academic work in the private equity field. Over 8 years, CEPRES has built up close relationships with the global private equity community and performance data is supplied directly from the private equity firms. CEPRES enters into legally binding agreements with the GP, which guarantees the anonymity of data.
The performance data generated by Private Equity Insight’s Performance Module, powered by CEPRES, is displayed in an aggregated format and provides a unique way to benchmark, rank and compare private equity deals performance.

Don’t the GPs just give CEPRES information on their successful deals?

CEPRES has a contractual obligation to each GP that data will be completely anonymous and aggregated, and no reference to the fund managers’ raw data will be possible. GPs have a similar obligation and incentive to provide information on all their portfolio companies, not just the ones which have performed well. The GPs have no incentive for cherry picking since the provided information cannot be used for any public ranking of their funds or their investments.
Information is also verified with additional external information sources.

Why do GPs give CEPRES this data?

GPs working with CEPRES are leaders in understanding that high quality, accurate, reliable returns data is necessary to maximise performance. They have chosen to work with CEPRES rather than any other organisation because of their academic expertise and record of confidentiality. In return for joining the CEPRES community, GPs become a CEPRES network partner with access to a range of CEPRES academic consultancy and risk-monitoring services. For more information on joining the CEPRES data exchange community, contact Dr. Daniel Schmidt, daniel.schmidt@CEPRES.de

How big is the CEPRES database?

As of Feb 2008 – 21,000 portfolio companies, 934 funds, 336 investment managers – including over 150,000 cashflows from 1971 to today.
An average of 1500 new deals are added to the database each quarter.
No other organisation has CEPRES’s archive of performance data or reputation for academic excellence.

How does Private Equity Insight’s Performance Module work?

For a free of charge trial of the service, call Dan Bentley on +44 (0) 207-484-9804, email dan.bentley@incisivemedia.com or complete the online trial form