The PE S-Curve, Dug Out

There are a couple of concepts that qualify a discovery – even if just stumbled upon: novelty and usefulness. With respect to private equity, the S-Curve adds the notion of decreasing marginal returns to improve the mainstream J-Curve notion, and this clears novelty. What’s left now is to dig out its usefulness.

The PE S-Curve, Stumbled Upon

Unexpectedly last week, I stumbled upon an S-Curve hidden between the lines of a study released by an established private equity funds of funds firm with a cautious introductory question: “do private equity funds sometimes just run out of steam?”

No Liquidity without Price

The title of last week’s PEI‘s Friday Letter, “No Dice without Liquidity”, identifies the critical element determining the reported decision of KKR to stop promoting two retail products.

Fair Value, DaRC Transparency

A recent article from the Private Equity Manager’s Daily Digest titled “When is fair value not fair value?” provides interesting and sharable comments about the decision taken by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) to create a task force and deliver more granular rules for “valuing hard-to-price non-quoted companies”.

The DaRC Side of the J-Curve

It’s not a “J”, it’s an “S”!  Coming out from the DaRC Room, that’s what the picture is telling!