Fundamentals of Private Markets

Course Content

Private Markets Overview

• Why Private Markets? The role of Private Markets in the modern portfolio
• Differentiating between private markets vs. public markets
• Surveying the private markets universe – the spectrum of investment solutions available
• The drivers behind the growth – the need for return, income and diversification
• Why Private Markets offer higher returns than traditional assets
• A look at the asset class correlations and returns
• Overview of the UK Long Term Asset Fund (LTAF) regulatory structure and understanding of the illiquidity risks
• Creating a semi-liquid investment structure that can be distributed to a wider UK market (restricted mass market)

Fundamentals of Private Equity

• What is Private Equity? The role of Private Equity in the institutional portfolio
• The life cycle of a primary trade – from capital raising to asset realisation and fund termination
• The General Partner/Limited Partner (investor) relationship model and the fee structure
• The mechanics of private equity investing – investor commitments, cash distributions and the J-curve
• Return objectives and need for diversification across vintage years
• Private equity fund structure and economics
• Value drivers in a private equity investment
• How to measure fund performance – from IRR to Distributions Paid-In (DPI)
• Valuation considerations, risk analysis and manager selection

Fundamentals of Private Credit

• What is Private Credit? (direct lending)
• Defining Private Credit and comparing it to traditional credit markets
• The investors’ perspective – the pros and cons
• The key risks associated with private credit investing
• Typical features and opportunities across the market cycles
• Illustrative breakdown of the Private Credit pricing (return) differential
• Including factors that affect the credit spread
• Understanding the capital structure
• Terms of the transactions, investor call protection and the significance of the restrictive covenants
• What to look for in a General Partner (GP)

Fundamentals of Real Estate

• Private vs. public Real Estate Investing
• Investment characteristics as an asset class – key property attributes and characteristics
• Global Real Estate historic returns
• Types of property investments and activities
• Key themes shaping the Real Estate industry – from property repositioning to decarbonisation and climate change
• Real Estate investment strategy diversification – prime vs. core vs. value-added vs. opportunistic
• Sources of value – rental payments, pro-active management of yield movements
• Drivers of rental and capital values – total return
• Real Estate investment vehicles
• Overview of the performance metrics used in Real Estate

Fundamentals of Infrastructure

• Review of the investable universe
• Characteristics of Infrastructure Investment
• Investment themes, sector exposure and Infrastructure characteristics
• Types of infrastructure investments – from core to opportunistic
• Financing Infrastructure investments – public vs. private funding
• Key asset class benefits and risks
• Infrastructure portfolio metrics – from Sharpe ratios to maximum drawdowns
• Inflation protection provided by the Infrastructure sector
• Matching responsible investment implementation to asset selection
• The case for using real assets to gain exposure to thematic, impact or green investments – the ESG perspectives
• Open-ended vs. closed-ended infrastructure fund comparisons