‘League Table’ By Preqin Highlights Top PE Firms

Ignatius Fogarty, Preqin’s head of private equity products, said in a statement, “There is clear evidence to suggest that managers of top-tier funds are more likely than their peers to continue to produce top-performing funds in the future, though … past performance is not a guarantee of future success.”

The data provider excluded all funds with vintage years of 2011 or later. Moreover, Preqin said the firms in the ranking had to be active managers that have raised at least three funds with a similar strategy. The firms also had to have raised a new fund within the last six years.  Overall, scores were an average of performance quartiles of a firm’s funds. If a firm had three funds, all of which ranked in the top quartile, the firm received the top score of 1. A firm with four funds, two of which ranked in the second quartile and two of which ranked in the third quartile, the firm would receive a score of 2.5, and so on.

Tim Friedman, the head of U.S. operations at Preqin, said it was important to note that each fund’s quartile ranking is dependent on its vintage year and geographic home. Thus, a U.S. firm’s 2003 fund gets its quartile ranking by being compared to other North American funds launched in 2003.

A quick look at the rankings has four firms capturing the highest overall (and possible) score of 1.0.  They were Inflexion, Veritas Capital, Vista Equity Partners and Wynnchurch Capital Partners. Each of these firms had just three funds, with each fund ranking in the top quartile, according to Preqin.  Click the link at right for a table ranking the top 10 performers.