17 Feb 2011 14:27
Aberdeen Private Equity Fund Limited
Unaudited Interim Management Statement - 3 months to 31 December 2010
To the shareholders of Aberdeen Private Equity Fund Limited
This interim management statement has been produced solely to provide additional information to shareholders as a body to meet the relevant requirements of the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules. It should not be relied upon by any other party or for any other purpose.
This interim management statement relates to the period from 1 October 2010 to 31 December 2010, and contains information that covers this period, and up to the date of publication of this interim management statement, unless otherwise specified.
Overview
Aberdeen Private Equity Fund Limited ("the Company") is a Guernsey closed-ended investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange. The principal investment focus of the Company is to invest in private equity and private equity like funds. The Company has small legacy holdings in a small number of hedge funds and other specialty funds, which are, for the most part, being worked out of the portfolio.
Investment objective
To generate long term capital gains through investment in a diversified portfolio of private equity funds.
Material events
During the period, Board approval was given to write down the valuation of the Company's holding in Aarkad Plc to zero. This was based on information received from the liquidator that recovery of the fund's assets would be very unlikely to exceed the value of the fund's creditors. This write down was reflected in the October 2010 Net Asset Value announced on 19 November 2010.
The Company had already written the investment down by 75% in January 2010.
On a positive note, the Company was offered 10.18% of the original amount invested in its holdings in the two Madoff funds in the portfolio, Rye Select Broad Market XL Portfolio Limited and Defender Limited and as a result, wrote up the value of these investments in December 2010 to $865,300 and $1,038,360 respectively. The sale of these investments went through in January 2011 at those values.
New Investments
The Company made a US$10 million commitment to Gores Capital Partners III LP during the period. The Gores Group LLC is one of the leading operational turnaround businesses in North America.
The Company also made a €10 million commitment to Northzone Ventures VI LP, a Nordic venture technology specialist.
Investment Commentary
The Company held 22 funds* in its portfolio at the end of the period. Of these, 17 were Private Equity & Private Equity Like funds, 1 was a Specialty fund and 4 were Hedge funds.
The Company's commitments total $222 million. The total drawn down on commitments made is approximately $143.4 million, with 21 capital calls having been made in the quarter, totalling $8.7 million. The Company has received total distributions of $13.9 million since inception, with $3.3 million received during the quarter. Revaluations were received from 15 of the managers during the quarter, 7 were upwards revaluations and 8 were downwards revaluations.
The portfolio's commitment cover, which includes cash and the remaining historic allocation to Hedge funds was 77.4% at the end of the period. The pure cash commitment cover was 74.4%
*Not including the fully written down investment in Aarkad Plc.
Share Buybacks
During the period under review 1,459,000 Sterling shares were purchased in the market for cancellation. Subsequent to the period end, a further 765,000 Sterling Shares have been purchased and cancelled.
Ten largest holdings as at 31 December 2010
Manager | Type | Portfolio Weighting |
Oaktree OCM Opportunities Fund VIIb LP | Distressed | 10.7% |
Greenpark International Investors III LP | Secondaries | 6.6% |
Thomas H Lee Parallel Fund VI LP | Buyout | 5.0% |
Silver Lake Partners III LP | Buyout | 4.9% |
Coller International Partners V LP | Secondaries | 4.7% |
Tenaya Capital V LP | Venture Capital | 4.2% |
SVG Strategic Recovery Fund II LP | Activist Small Cap | 4.0% |
Thoma Bravo Fund IX LP | Growth Capital | 3.7% |
MatlinPatterson Global Opportunities Partners III LP | Distressed | 3.0% |
Goldman Sachs Capital Partners VI LP | Mega Buyout | 3.0% |
Cash: The Company currently invests its cash with counterparties that appear on Aberdeen Asset Managers Limited's approved lending list.
Geographical Allocation as at 31 December 2010
North America 47.5% |
Europe 11.0% |
Global 37.4% |
Asia & Other 4.1% |
General description of Company's financial position as at 31 December 2010
Sterling shares NAV | 88.85 pence |
Market Capitalisation | £92.0 million |
As described in the Company's prospectus, and as has been the case since its launch, the net asset value ("NAV") and the NAV per share are both calculated monthly by the Company's administrator based on the latest published NAV for each underlying fund.
Cumulative performance (%) (GBP)
Cumulative Performance | ||||||
as at | 1 month | 3 months | 6 months | 1 year | 3 years | |
31/12/2010 | % | % | % | % | % | |
Share Price | 70.0p | -0.4 | 4.5 | 36.6 | 34.6 | -24.3 |
NAV | 88.9p | 0.5 | 2.7 | -0.4 | 7.9 | -10.6 |
Discrete Performance | ||||||
31/12/2010 % | 31/12/2009 % | 31/12/2008 % | ||||
Share Price | 34.6 | 18.9 | -52.7 | |||
NAV | 7.9 | -17.5 | 0.4 | |||
Total Return; NAV to NAV, Net Income Reinvested, GBP | ||||||
Source: Aberdeen Asset Managers Limited and Morningstar | ||||||
NAV returns based on NAVs excluding income and with debt valued at par | ||||||
The Board is not aware of any other significant events or transactions which have occurred between 1 January 2011 and the date of publication of this interim management statement which would have a material impact on the financial position of the Company. For latest performance information, please refer to the Company's factsheet at http://www.aberdeenprivateequity.co.uk/doc.nsf/Lit/FactsheetUKClosedAberdeenPrivateEquityFund
Neither the content of the Company's website nor the content of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Company's website (or any other website) is (or is deemed to be) incorporated into, or forms (or is deemed to form) part of this announcement.
Please note that past performance is not necessarily a guide to the future and that the value of investments and the income from them may fall as well as rise. Investors may not get back the amount they originally invested.
For Aberdeen Private Equity Fund Limited
RBC Offshore Fund Managers LimitedSecretary
17 February 2011