Show Notes
Private equity is opening up to individual investors, and the line between public and private markets is blurring. In this episode, private investments portfolio manager Peter Lieu and institutional portfolio manager Kevin Minas break down secondaries and continuation vehicles, the difference between IRR and distributions, and how Mawer built institutional-quality private equity access through fund commitments, co-investments, and vintage-year diversification, including a new mutual fund trust for registered accounts like RRSPs and TFSAs.
0:00 - Introduction: Private Equity Beyond Endowments and Pensions 1:30 - A Brief History of Private Equity Allocations: Yale to the Maple 8 2:58 - Public-Private Convergence: Why Companies Stay Private Longer 6:17 - Secondaries and Continuation Vehicles Explained 9:40 - IRR vs. Distributions: The Delayed-Exit Debate 13:45 - Bringing Private Equity to Retail: Institutional-Quality Access 15:14 - Co-Investments and 50 Years of Business-Model Analysis 18:25 - Why a Mutual Fund Trust for RRSPs and TFSAs 20:22 - Liquidity and Redemption Windows in a Semi-Liquid Structure 22:21 - Private Equity Returns in a Higher-Rate World 26:06 - What's Next: Sports, Live Entertainment, and Democratization 32:13 - Outro & Subscribe
-The line between public and private markets is blurring. Companies are staying private longer, more financing is available without an IPO, and public companies are increasingly being taken private, so accessing value early in a company's life increasingly depends on having private equity exposure.
-Continuation vehicles are the modern version of the secondary buyout, not a new idea. They let a manager hold a strong business for longer, and roughly 90% of LPs who can roll into the new vehicle choose to take liquidity instead, which creates both a conundrum for investors and an opportunity for disciplined buyers.
-Distributions matter as much as IRR. IRR assumes capital is reinvested at the same rate and can look healthy even when little cash has been returned, so the team evaluates managers on money multiples and cash back, not IRR alone.
-Mawer built its access the way large institutions do. The program pairs fund commitments for diversification across companies, geographies, sectors, and vintage years with no-fee, no-carry co-investments, where the firm applies 50 years of business-model analysis to a single company decision.
-Registered accounts and private equity are naturally aligned. A new mutual fund trust extends the strategy to RRSPs, LIRAs, and TFSAs, where long time horizons and capital that is already locked up match the illiquidity of the asset class.
-Recent returns have been weaker as higher rates pressured valuations and exits slowed while public markets outperformed, but the long-term value drivers remain in place, and a staggered deployment that began in 2022 positioned the strategy for a constructive backdrop.
Companies and Assets Mentioned: SpaceX, Amazon, Alpine F1 team, University of Utah Athletics, RedBird Capital, Otro.
Host: Rob Campbell, CFA, Mawer Institutional Portfolio Manager Guest: Kevin Minas, CFA, MBA, CAIA, Mawer Institutional Portfolio Manager Guest: Peter Lieu, CFA, Mawer Portfolio Manager, Private Investments
This episode is available for download anywhere you get your podcasts.
Founded in 1974, Mawer Investment Management Ltd. (pronounced "more") is a privately owned independent investment firm managing assets for institutional and individual investors. Mawer employs over 250 people in Canada, U.S., and Singapore.
Visit us at: https://www.youtube.com/@MawerInvestment https://www.mawer.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/mawer-investment-management/ https://www.instagram.com/mawerinvestmentmanagement/
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