Private Equity Holding sells seven investments

Private Equity Holding (PEH), which yesterday signed management contracts with Swiss Life Private Equity Partners Ltd, has sold seven portfolio fund investments to an unnamed buyer for a consideration of SFr243m (E161m).

PEH said in a statement that the disposal, designed partly to reduce outstanding commitments “to a more prudent level in light of the generally longer harvesting cycle” of its portfolio, would result in a SFr20m profit as well as a reduction of fair value of the remaining assets by approximately SFr7 per share.

Today shares in PEH opened down slightly at Sfr235.

PEH announced the deal on the day that it officially became part of Swiss Life Private Equity Partners, which manages Swiss Life’s SFr2bn private equity program. Swiss Life will be managing PEH after the latter’s shareholders opted to cancel the previous management contract with Vontobel, the Swiss Bank that ran into difficulties earlier this year.

As at March 31 of this year, PEH held investments in 89 private equity funds and direct investments in 47 companies totaling SFr1.6bn. At the time PEH traded at SFr275 per share.