Financial Education

Private equity funds are typically structured as limited partnerships or limited liability corporations (LLCs). There are a number of reasons for this preference.

• No double taxation (profits taxed at limited partner or shareholder level)
• No liability beyond the initial investment

Typically private equity funds will be structured to have a 7-10 year life, with options to extend this for an additional 1-5 years. The objective is to realize the full value of investments by the liquidation date. Rather than manage pools of uninvested capital, private equity managers typically require commitments that are drawn down as the funds are needed to make investments or cover expenses.

Fees for private equity managers typically include a management fee of 1.5% – 2.0% of assets under management, plus an incentive fee of 15%-20% of the profits retained after capital is returned to the limited partners. The incentive fee may include a hurdle rate of return that must be met before the fee is earned, and also may include a claw-back provision in case later investments do poorly.

Many studies have questioned the ability of mutual funds and pension funds to time the market. In an article published in the December 2007 Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Chen and Liang examine the returns of 221 hedge funds self-identified as market timers. They find that, for the 1994-2005 period, evidence supports timing ability – especially in volatile or bear markets.

The results are robust to model specification and volatility timing. They do not appear to result primarily from option-like trading or luck.

The authors conclude that the flexible strategies associated with hedge funds are useful for professional market timers, and that funds promising market-timing results are likely to deliver them.

A number of factors affect performance evaluation for hedge funds, particularly with respect to using the Sharpe ratio to measure risk-adjusted return.

Starting with return, typically monthly returns are compounded to an annualized rate of return. However, entry and exit opportunities may be permitted only quarterly or even less frequently. In addition, some measures of downside risk such as the maximum drawdown are not compounded. Measures comparing return (compounded) and drawdown (not compounded) may not fully reflect the risk/return profile.

The Sharpe ratio is defined as:

• Numerator is the difference between annualized return and the annualized risk-free rate
• Denominator is the annualized standard deviation of returns

The Sharpe ratio increases proportionately with the square root of time, and is not appropriate when returns are asymmetrical. In particular, the Sharpe ratio tends to be overestimated when returns are serially correlated or assets are illiquid. Furthermore, the correlations between the fund and an investor’s other portfolio assets are not considered.

There are a number of ways managers can “game” the Sharpe ratio, including:

• Lengthening the measurement interval
• Compounding monthly returns but calculating standard deviations without compounding
• Writing out of money put or call options to produce asymmetric returns
• Smoothing returns
• Using swaps to eliminate extreme outlying returns

In part because of these deficiencies, the Sharpe ratio has not been found to be a good predictor of hedge fund returns.

Venture capital investors typically receive convertible preferred stock when funding companies. If the company is forced to liquidate, the preferred shares will have precedence in receiving funds. The company founders will hold a residual stake of common shares. If subsequent funding rounds are provided, each round is typically senior to the previous.

Typically the preferred investors must see a return of capital and also some investment return (often a total of 2x the capital contributed) before any cash can be returned to common shareholders. This provides the founders with an incentive to earn the return required by their investors so they can reap their own rewards.

The preferred shares are also convertible to common shares, which is typically done when a corporate action (merger or IPO) creates liquidity for the common shares and an opportunity to cash out.

The growth in the hedge fund industry has increased the importance of measuring how hedge funds achieve their returns. Since many funds either explicitly or implicitly use leverage, a useful question is whether hedge funds merely represent an expensive way to use leverage.

In an article published in the Winter 2007 Journal of Wealth Management, Jean Brunel finds that simple leverage does not appear to be the primary determinant of market-neutral or long-short hedge fund returns. Instead, three broad themes emerge:

• Beta leverage is not a strong element of long-short or market neutral returns
• Hedge fund return replication requires dynamic management of leverage
• When hedge fund managers use leverage, they tend to lever their value added skills rather than generic risk exposures

Since reported hedge fund performance is of doubtful significance and risk monitoring is difficult, due diligence takes on special significance when investments in hedge funds are being considered. Some of the things investors must determine include:

1. The structure of the fund
   • Legal entity
   • Identity of manager
   • Domicile
   • Regulatory regime
2. Strategy
   • Style
   • Instruments used
   • Benchmark
   • Niche
   • Current holdings
3. Performance data since inception for all funds under management
4. Risk management
   • What risks are measured
   • How are they measured
   • How are they controlled
   • How is leverage employed
5. Research
   • Has the firm’s research led to changes in strategy
   • Strength of research efforts
   • Research budget
   • Personnel
6. Administration
   • Lawsuits
   • Employee turnover
   • Disaster recovery plans
7. Legal and Regulatory
   • Fee structure
   • Lock-up period
   • Minimum and maximum subscription amounts
   • Drawback provisions
8. References
   • Professional
   • Other investors in the fund

Buyout funds represent a significantly larger market segment within private equity compared to venture capital. Mega-cap buyout funds typically will take public companies private through a leveraged buyout. Mid-market funds will purchase private companies or divisions of larger companies.

Buyout funds add value by restructuring operations, by buying opportunistically when companies are selling at less than their intrinsic value, or by capturing gains by adding to or restructuring existing debt. They can realize these gains through a later public offering, selling the company to another buyer or by recapitalizing (borrowing and using the proceeds to pay a special dividend).

Buyout funds differ from venture capital funds in a number of ways:

• They are usually highly leveraged
• Cash flows to investors are typically more stable and start sooner
• Returns are not as subject to measurement error

With the growth in the hedge fund industry has come a decline in the value added by hedge fund managers. Given the high fees typically charged by hedge funds, some have questioned whether passive approaches can be constructed that would provide returns similar to those of hedge funds while offering greater transparency and liquidity.

In the Winter 2007 Journal of Wealth Management Harry Kat discusses three general approaches to hedge fund replication:

• Factor Models
• Mechanical Trading Rules
• The author’s FundCreator product

In a factor model, linear regressions determine the market exposures experienced by a hedge fund or hedge fund index. Factors may include stock, bond, commodity and currency returns, or changes in credit spreads and market volatility. These exposures can then be taken via index products or derivative instruments.

In the case of funds that add value by timing short-term changes in market exposure, the investor’s trading behavior can be compared to mechanical trading rules.

The FundCreator product is a risk management tool that allows the investor to target the risk and correlation properties desired in order to maximize diversification potential.

There are a number of benchmarks available for hedge funds, distinguished primarily by the frequency of data reporting (monthly or daily), whether they are investable or not, and whether they list the actual funds from which they are comprised.

Principle differences among the indices include:

• Selection criteria – what kind of track record or level of assets must a fund attain in order to qualify for inclusion?
• Style classification
• Weighting scheme – usually either equal weights or based on assets under management
• How frequently the weights of the constituent funds are rebalanced
• Investability

Since hedge funds often promote themselves as absolute return vehicles (and thus do not have a direct benchmark) that absolute return nonetheless must be measured in terms of some benchmark. Important questions to consider are whether any alpha reported is sensitive to the benchmark in use and whether the alpha takes into account the true systematic risks faced by the portfolio.

There are also a number of limitations to most of the available hedge fund indices, including:

• Results are self-reported by the managers and may not be completely neutral or accurate
• Databases reflect survivorship bias as poorly performing managers exit leaving only the best included. This results in an upward bias to reported returns.
• The frequency of data reporting may lead to stale prices and distort correlation measures.
• Missing data can be filled at the manager’s convenience, leading to a backfill bias.

Studies to determine whether hedge fund returns can be mimicked using passive strategies have shown mixed results but do show that returns are influenced largely by the trading strategy employed. Market neutral strategies may offer better diversification to traditional asset classes.

Hedge fund returns have been shown to exhibit low skewness and high kurtosis, which are undesirable features. Mean-variance optimizations are sensitive to errors in the return estimates, and historical data (as discussed above) can be unreliable.

Formative stage companies and privately held companies often have limited access to capital. Start-ups often need capital to fund research or obtain office space before they have generated any revenue. Other companies may need capital in order to expand operations.

Venture capital can be supplied by Angel investors (accredited investors who supply small amounts of seed or early-stage capital), venture capitalists (who manage pooled capital and also offer companies financial and management support) or large companies who want to become strategic partners.

Financial needs for private companies typically go through several stages:

1. Early stage financing
   • Seed capital – small amounts of money used to form the company and prove the idea
   • Start-up – pre-revenue commercialization of a product
   • First stage – additional funds that may be needed, and which are typically supplied only when conditions warrant
2. Later-stage financing offers funds to promising companies that need to expand their operations
3. Exit stage
   • Acquisition by a larger company
   • Merger with another company
   • Initial public offering (IPO)