Ohio To Release Portfolio Company Valuations

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation is planning to release a report that likely will include portfolio company valuations for many of its 68 private equity funds. Each of the affected 54 general partners were informed yesterday that the report would become publicly available in ten days, and that they could get advanced copies of information that dealt specifically with their firm. OBWC spokeswoman Emily Hicks did not know how many, if any, firms have taken advantage of that opportunity.

The report was originally prompted by an ongoing Ohio political scandal known as Coingate, in which OBWC monies were invested – and lost – in a rare coins scheme. One result – in addition to resignations and the possibility of a Republican-to-Democratic sea change in Ohio electoral politics – was that OBWC retained Chicago advisory Ennis Knupp & Associates to formally review the valuations of all OBWC private equity funds.

Ennis Knupp asked each general partner to submit a “Valuation Certification,” attesting to the value of OBWC’s holdings in the partnership. It then examined additional information and held phone conversations with most general partners in order to determine whether or not the valuation were accurate. It then compiled all of the information, and submitted it to OBWC. Soon after, the system began receiving Open Records requests, including one from The Columbus Dispatch.

The final report includes pages of data charts, which include current valuations for each general partnership. It also includes printouts for each general partner, in which Ennis Knupp “captures the substance of the telephone interviews.” Finally, there are additional printouts that capture “the verbal rationale the general partner provided to Ennis Knupp & Associates for the valuation of individual portfolio companies.

General partners yesterday were each sent a 22-page version of the report in which all of the financial information and “printout” information was redacted. Each GP can request its own unredacted information before the report is made public, in part to let them object to certain disclosures (on grounds of trade secret, for example). It is not clear, however, whether or not OBWC will heed such objections.

General partners include, but are not limited to: ABRY Partners, ABS Capital Partners, Athenian Venture Partners, Carlyle Group, Castle Harlan, Charter Life Sciences, Draper Triangle Ventures, EDF Ventures, Edgewater Funds, Edison Venture Fund, Fort Washington Capital Partners, Fremont Partners, Halpern Denny, HarbourVest Partners, Lexington Partners, Invesco Private Capital, MCM Capital Partners, MK Capital Management, Pharos Capital, Primus Venture Partners, Quad C Advisors, Reservoir Capital Ventures, TCW/Crescent Mezzanine, Thayer Capital Partners, Triathlon Medical Ventures and Wind Point Partners.

Ennis Knupp declined to comment. Much more on this story in Monday’s edition of the PE Week Wire. To get the PE Week Wire, send an email with the subject heading “Wire Yes.

Email Daniel.Primack@thomson.com