Direct Investments

Investors in direct funds are typically seeking full global coverage, access to the best deals, accelerated exposure and predictable liquidity.

Our Article 8-compliant Directs programme focuses on creating an all-weather portfolio of global mid-market companies which we believe are capable of becoming the leaders of tomorrow, and whose growth is underpinned by long-term trends.

Each programme we raise invests in 30-40 hard-to-access companies operating in North America and Europe, with a smaller allocation to Asia Pacific over a three year deployment period. We achieve this by employing a powerful combination of mind and machine; leveraging our 30 years of institutional wisdom, 700-strong investment partner network and highly experienced Investment Committee – together with our proprietary PEpper AI tool – to assess up to 1,000 deals a year. These are whittled down to 250-300 opportunities, with further analysis taking place before 30-50 are shortlisted for full due diligence. Only 10-15 will make the cut each year.

Our target companies must have the following attributes to be considered for investment:

• Theme driven resilient growth
• Leading asset in their sector
• Mission-critical product or service offering
• High margin and cash conversion
• Limited leverage
• Ability for us to have active ownership

We are also focused on exits across the cycle, delivering regular liquidity back to investors, together with management fees and carried interest lower than a standard buyout fund, leading to higher net returns for our investors.