- Almost half of the portfolio made up of private equity secondaries and co-investments
- Launched in January 2023, offers investors the ability to customize a portfolio by investing in region sleeves or sub-portfolios London, 5 July 2023 – UBS Asset Management Real Estate & Private Markets today announces the first close of its fifth private equity growth strategy, with investor commitments totaling EUR 265.8m. This success reflects strong investor interest amid a challenging macroeconomic period, and follows the final close of a prior strategy in January 2022 with EUR 384m commitments.

Currently, the strategy is invested in a range of primary fund commitments as well as several transactions, including a number of private equity secondaries and has several co-investments in the pipeline, accelerating portfolio build-up and lifting performance. The strategy is targeting almost fifty percent of the portfolio to be invested in private equity secondaries and co-investments, this is expected to further drive the strategy’s return.

Returns have been strong across the previous iterations of the private equity growth strategy series, due to a focus on small to mid-sized companies within secular growth themes including fintech, oncology, shifting consumer habits, and the growing middle-class in emerging markets.

As with the prior strategies, investors will be able to select a globally diversified portfolio, but also have the option to invest in sleeves for a “pure play” geographical exposure in either North America, Europe or Asia-Pacific. Investors in the European sleeve will obtain an SFDR Art. 8 sustainable strategy whereas investors in the global, North American and APAC sleeves will obtain SFDR Art. 6 compliant strategies.

Markus Benzler, Head of Multi-Managers Private Equity at UBS Asset Management, commented: “We are pleased to see the fifth iteration our flagship investment strategy showing strong investor appetite after fundraising officially kicked off only late January 2023. The strategy is set to invest even more in secondaries and co-investments than its predecessor, which we expect to bring the cost basis down to a level which is competitive with direct private equity, bolstering performance and leading to exciting benefits for our investors.”