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Industry Performance

The BVCA, in association with PwC, publishes the Performance Measurement Survey Report each year which compares private equity and venture capital's performance with other asset classes over different time periods. The statistics in this report are the results of, an annual survey of fund level cash flows and valuations collected from our members.

The Performance Measurement Survey looks at funds which invest in businesses at all stages of the growth lifecycle – from venture capital funds specialising in start-ups to large buyout funds investing in global corporations. The survey captures the performance of UK managed funds, including independent funds, venture capital investments and management buyouts, representing most of the UK private equity and venture capital industry, making the dataset and analysis rich and robust.

Our full Performance Measurement Survey Report takes an in depth look at the data, presenting performance by vintage year, fund type and fund focus. We also publish a short highlights paper and accompanying data tables in excel for those who love the detail.

We are pleased to be able to contribute to the wealth of data evidencing the positive performance of UK private capital through this long running study.

Performance Measurement Survey Report 2022: Key findings

This report demonstrates the returns generated for investors by our members to 31 December 2022.

The industry return, measured by the since inception internal rate of return since 1980 is 14.7% p.a. The equivalent measure since 2013 is 19.7% p.a.

These annual returns are equivalent to investors getting a 1.84x return on capital invested over the past decade (i.e. nearly doubling their money) and a 1.81x return on capital invested since 1980, including the value of unrealised investments at their 31 December 2022 values.

However, not all funds generate superior returns, and our detailed analysis shows the range of returns to be wide, with some funds ultimately may not generate a positive return. Investors in private equity and venture capital funds are typically institutional, well-advised investors, who will be aware of the spectrum of returns.

The Performance Measurement Survey Report 2022 can be found here and the 2022 Performance Measurement Survey Summary Highlights paper can be found here. For those interested in analysing the data, an excel spreadsheet with all the numbers from the report can also be found here.

View the full report

Performance and Public Market Equivalent (PME) Report 2022

The third edition of the PME report from the BVCA applies two Public Market Equivalent (PME) methodologies to present a comparison of the relative performance of private capital funds managed by BVCA members against the public equity market, as represented by the FTSE All-Share Total Return index and by the MSCI Europe Total Return index.

Key points
  • Collectively, private equity and venture capital funds managed by its members have outperformed the stock market as represented by the FTSE All-Share and the MSCI Europe, the most comparable indices for the range of small, medium and large investments held by UK private equity and venture capital funds, each vintage year since 2001.
  • Since 2001, investors into private equity and venture capital funds have collectively earned a pooled return of 14.7% per annum. These annual returns are equivalent to investors nearly doubling their money, getting a 1.84x pooled return on capital invested, including the value of unrealised investments as at 31 December 2022.
  • A Public Market Equivalent (PME) analysis compares these private capital returns to equivalent investments in a public index. BVCA analysis using two different PME measures shows that the returns generated for investors by funds managed by BVCA members have been better than those of equivalent investments in the FTSE All-Share index and MSCI Europe index every year since 2001.

View the full report

Read our latest reports on industry performance

Further information

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT THE BVCA

 +44 (0)20 7492 0400

 research@bvca.co.uk