Another Sign of Diminishing Fund Appetite

New numbers from private equity software provider Efront add to the narrative that investment from institutions such as private equity funds and sovereign wealth funds is slowing.

As reported in the Financial Times, Efront found that private equity firms only used about 1% of their capital in the last three months of 2017, compared with 5% in 2006, quarter on quarter. The data in its survey was anonymised, but Efront’s clients include such investors Calpers in the US and Adia in the Middle East.

Separately a report by Preqin also captured a decline in private equity investment flows, in this case in the commercial real estate space specifically.

For Q2 it reported, both fundraising and deal flow are not only down compared with the first quarter, but are also relatively weak compared to recently quarterly levels. Mandates that institutional investors are putting out show that appetite is moving from opportunity funds down the spectrum to value added and core-plus vehicles.

It is possible that Q2 will have turned out to be a blip in what could be otherwise strong year but the quarter’s numbers do not suggest a strong momentum is underway. Preqin reported that 47 funds raised a combined $22 billion, the lowest quarterly total since 2013.

The slowdown, it speculated, is likely due to higher asset pricing, with fund managers moving to the lower end of the market for deal flow: two-thirds of transactions in Q2 were valued at less than $50 million compared with 59% the year before.

In a third report, the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, found that sovereign wealth funds scaled back their investment in private markets last year and the main reason was a growing sense of real estate fatigue. Last year direct real estate and infrastructure investments made by SWFs declined from a total of $25 billion in 2016 to $23.2 billion, according to the report. In the property sector, there was almost a 40% decrease in the number of investments in private markets between 2016 and 2017.

Most significantly, SWFs reduced their investment activity in commercial and office properties, a cornerstone of their CRE strategies.

The primary reason for the decline: SWFs are finding it more difficult to buy properties as more institutional investors have recently entered the sector increasing competition for high-quality assets and pushing asset valuations higher.

These findings were just echoed by Bank of America, which believes that the US binge buying they have exhibited over the last decade is set to end. Woody Boueiz, global head of sovereign wealth funds at Bank of America, told Bloomberg that “SWFs and public pensions continue to be attracted by income-yielding assets such as infrastructure, real estate, power and data centers, but that space is getting crowded, especially in the developed markets.”