State Street has launched a private equity index that will enable private equity investors to evaluate their performance against their peers.
The firm has been running the index for internal clients for about two-and-a-half years.
"Over that time, the product has evolved and now we have enhanced it to a level investors are pleased with," says William Pryor, senior vice-president.
The index contains data from public and private pension clients, endowments, foundations and general partners. The index is derived from more than 1,300 private equity partnerships with a total fund size of $1.1 trillion.
Unlike other private equity indices, State Street’s index does not have a survivorship bias as partnerships’ results are reported on a mandatory basis. Therefore, it includes those private equity funds that have underperformed as well as those that are closed to additional investors. It also has broad representation across multiple types of institutional investors. State Street reconciles the data with general partnership and custody information.
Although there are no firm plans to make the index investable, Pryor does not rule out the possibility.