House hearing: PE avoids a public thrashing

Details of Tuesday's House Financial Services Committee hearing on private equity, plus TA Associates on taking outside investment and fund term intelligence.

Industry representatives largely avoided the public thrashing they thought they were in for at today’s House Financial Services Committee hearing, “America for Sale? An Examination of the Practices of Private Funds.” There were even acknowledgements from House Democrats of the importance of the industry to capital formation and investment, especially in the lower to mid-markets, reports Graham Bippart.

Some suggestions of differentiated regulatory regimes for different market segments (growth equity, buyouts, for example) were made. But investors’ (and ILPA’s) hopes that greater transparency and fiduciary duty would be among the main fare weren’t fully satisfied. LACERA trustee Wayne Moore was visually exasperated by repeated attempts to turn the discussion from fund transparency to overall private equity outperformance. Full report here.

GP stake sales: Not everyone is looking sell a slice of their firm. TA Associates’ Ajit Nedungadi tells PEI‘s Adam Le: “If you’ve got a family watch as an heirloom, do you go sell it? You were given something as a partner, [so] you then view as your responsibility to develop it, nurture it, build it to something of greater value, then hand it off to your next generation.”

Fund terms: if you are want to benchmark your fund terms, this annual report from MJHudson (a law firm and funds services group) is a useful comprehemsive reference point. This version covers everything from economics to GP removal and everything in between.

Email prepared by Graham Bippart and Toby Mitchenall.