SYDNEY, April 15, 2024 – WTW has today announced its proposal to launch a private equity-focused fund, known within the EU as a Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (RAIF), subject to regulatory approval.
The proposed new fund, named the WTW Private Equity Access Fund (or ‘WTW PEAF’) will invest in a range of private equity opportunities including co-investments. The fund has received initial commitments of over US$500 million ahead of launch.
The new private equity fund will be the first time WTW’s institutional private equity business has offered a pooled fund to the market. This supports broader industry initiatives to better align the long-term investment needs of many end investors, including Defined Contribution (DC) pension savers, and invest into assets that, historically, have been harder for DC and private investors to access.
The fund, which is anticipated to be available in Europe and Asia-Pacific in Q3, will offer investors dedicated private equity exposure. WTW believes that private equity investments, which historically have offered a high illiquidity premium, provide the greatest opportunity to maximise long-term returns from private markets and are therefore where long-term illiquid DC asset strategies should start.
The WTW PEAF also includes mechanisms to ensure valuation alignment to the net asset value of the underlying assets and liquidity alignment to redemption timing. The process will include the use of a third-party valuer, adopting market best practise for investors into evergreen, semi-liquid funds investing into private markets.
“Crucially for end savers looking to grow their wealth, they will now be able to access dedicated private equity exposure through a regulated pooled fund structure, the first of its kind in the market.”
Ben Leach | Head of Private Market Solutions, Investments, WTW
Ben Leach, Head of Private Market Solutions in WTW’s Investments business, said: “The launch of this fund is hugely exciting for investors and is the culmination of three years of development work. Crucially for end savers looking to grow their wealth, they will now be able to access dedicated private equity exposure through a regulated pooled fund structure, the first of its kind in the market.”
Nick Kelly, Director of Investments, Australia at WTW added, “This is a truly innovative solution which will meet the needs of a variety of investors in Australia. In particular, this will appeal to asset owners who are seeking to build a private equity programme but do not have the internal expertise and governance to do this. It could also be interesting for investors looking to add co-investments to an existing more mature private equity programme. The fund has increased liquidity relative to traditional private equity funds. This, coupled with extremely competitive fees and access to some of the world’s preeminent GP’s, makes WTW PEAF a really interesting proposition for the Australian market.”
“The fund will appeal to asset owners who are seeking to build a private equity programme but do not have the internal expertise and governance to do this.”
Nick Kelly | Director of Investments, Australia, WTW
WTW PEAF, is the first private capital evergreen, semi-liquid fund launched by WTW’s Private Markets Solutions Team. The team has plans for other long-term solutions to follow, focused on broadening its offering for savers across Europe and Asia-Pacific. In addition to DC pension savers, the PEAF will also be available to other institutional investors and individual professional investors.
The WTW PEAF fund is subject to regulatory approval, which is anticipated in the second half of 2024.
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