Australia’s public markets outshine PE

Public equities significantly outperformed Australian private equity in the first quarter this year, according to data from AVCAL, an industry organisation, and Cambridge Associates.

The S&P/ASX 300 Index showed returns of 8.06 for the quarter while the C/A index, which measures Australia’s private equity and venture capital performance, showed annualised net-of-fees returns of 2.36 percent.

Public equities have outperformed Australian private equity over one quarter, one year and 10-year horizons, according to AVCAL. Private equity outperformed in three, five and 15-year horizons. 

In a statement, AVCAL chief executive officer Katherine Woodthorpe mentioned the challenging exit environment but said that in the first quarter, private equity nonetheless had “the highest level of distributions to limited partners in the last five quarters”.

On the investment side, Australia’s private equity deals in 2013 have followed the larger downward trend in Asia, according to data from Thomson Reuters. 

Total deal value from January to August 2013 was $1.85 billion across 35 deals compared to $2.3 billion across 58 deals during the same period last year.

Asia’s deal value and volume for the same period fell 20 percent and 30 percent respectively, Private Equity International reported earlier.

Australia's PE deals lagging

Excluding real estate
Source: Thomson Reuters