Buckle Up! Oil Markets Are Likely to Remain Chaotic
Negative prices on near-dated WTI futures grabbed headlines yesterday. However, we should not assume from this that oil has negative value.
April 2020
Crude Oil Prices Collapsed—Should Investors Buy Public Energy?
March 10, 2020— Political machinations and virus-induced uncertainty are weighing on oil prices at present, and it seems unlikely that both these obstacles will soon be lifted. Investors should closely monitor positioning to ensure the current level of energy exposure is intentional.
March 2020
Are Retail Investors the Vanguard of Private Equity?
Yes, and they have been for some time. Progress has been slow, but current market and regulatory conditions could enable a breakthrough. The impact will be felt primarily in the upper registers of the private equity arena. I’m viewing Vanguard’s recent private equity–related announcement as the first of a two-step process. The first step is […]
February 2020
Venture Capital Positively Disrupts Intergenerational Investing
Families of wealth face three key questions about intergenerational wealth planning: how best to invest to sustain future generations; how best to engage the next generation; and how best to ensure family unity endures. Often each question is addressed independently. We find that a conversation across generations about the impact of a meaningful venture capital allocation can help address all three questions in an integrated manner.
January 2020
Is Private Equity Energy Dead?
Answers to our clients’ questions about market action and the market environment in a few paragraphs every two weeks. No. But, the game has changed and to be successful, investors should adopt a new commitment strategy. While the industry faces secular challenges, managers can innovate to exploit disruption and generate attractive absolute returns. Private equity […]
October 2019
Revving UK Pension Schemes’ Funding Engines
A number of UK defined benefit pension schemes have experienced significant funding level gains in recent years, driven by sponsor contributions, liability management exercises, and strong equity market returns. However, due to increased volatility in global equity markets, relatively high valuations in many market segments, and the late stages of the economic and credit cycles, optimising the scheme’s growth engine is more challenging than ever. This paper provides a framework for how to achieve that goal.
August 2019
Stress and Losses Among Middle-Market Senior and Unitranche Loans: Introducing Cambridge Associates' New Database
As part of our ongoing commitment to alternative credit, Cambridge Associates (CA) began compiling a database of credit stress and losses in one of the largest strategies within private credit, senior debt (i.e., direct lending). Our initial outreach in the United States and Europe yielded data from 11 senior debt funds tracking material document modifications (which we use as a proxy for credit stress, greater detail below) and loss rates in bilateral and clubbed middle-market lending.
July 2019
Are Private Equity Mega Funds in a Category by Themselves?
Mega funds are indeed in a category by themselves, namely that of a new public markets proxy.
May 2019