HONG KONG, 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.”
Jayne Bok, Head of Investments Asia at WTW, added: “This is an exciting and unique fund solution with a particular appeal to asset owners who may have already been investing in private equity, but may not have built up enough resourcing capacity or the opportunity to have that material co-investment exposure in their portfolios. It is an investment vehicle in private equity that’s designed to grow wealth, with improved liquidity and has shorter duration than traditional private equity funds. We are eagerly anticipating its launch.”
“It is an investment vehicle in private equity that’s designed to grow wealth, with improved liquidity and has shorter duration than traditional private equity funds.”
Jayne Bok | Head of Investments Asia, 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 eligible professional investors.
The WTW PEAF fund is subject to regulatory approval, which is anticipated in the second half of 2024.
The information and opinions contained in this document are for use by the financial press and media only. No reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information or opinions contained in this document nor should they be seen as advice.
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Except where stated as otherwise, the source of all information is WTW. Unless stated otherwise any views, opinions expressed are those of WTW. They should not be viewed as indicating any guarantee of return from an investment managed by WTW nor as advice of any nature. The value of an investment and any income from it may go down as well as up and the investor may not get back the original amount invested.
Private markets refer to investments not traded on a public exchange or market.
Underlying private markets investments of the Fund will normally be in unlisted companies and assets whose securities are not publicly traded and are therefore likely to be illiquid. They carry substantially higher risk than many investments in the equity of larger, listed companies, their public debt securities, or in listed real assets.
This document is intended for Professional Investors in Hong Kong, as defined in Schedule 1 to the Securities and Futures Ordinance. The contents of this document have not been reviewed by any regulatory authority in Hong Kong. Any fund mentioned in this document is not registered in Hong Kong. If you are in any doubt about any of the contents of this document, you should obtain independent professional advice.
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