Private Equity

PGGM is a major global private equity investor with a long and established track record. Together with top-tier private equity fund managers we invest globally in a large variety of private companies.

Private equity is an important investment category for PGGM to realize a sustainable and valuable pension for participants of our pension fund clients, including our main client PFZW. Private equity tends to generate higher returns than public markets with lower volatility throughout time and is considered as an asset category with lower liquidity. Typically, the time horizon for a private equity investment is 10+ years. PGGM’s private equity objective is to outperform the public markets by ~2.5%, which we have exceeded historically.

While the private equity portfolio is well diversified, the majority of investments are in developed countries, primarily the US and Western Europe, with a focus on buyout investments. The underlying investments in the portfolio are broadly diversified across sectors, with particularly significant exposure to Information Technology, Industrials, Consumer Discretionary, Health Care and Financials. Note, however, that we are in principle sector agnostic.

History

PGGM was an early investor in private equity, starting in 1983. From 2000 until 2011, it outsourced its private equity investments to AlpInvest, a joint venture between APG and PGGM. In 2009, PGGM decided to build up its in-house private equity team again and the first internal PGGM Private Equity Fund was launched in 2010. In 2011, PGGM sold its interest in AlpInvest to the Carlyle Group. Currently, AlpInvest is still committing €200m per year to lower US mid-market private equity funds (funds with a target size up to $2bn) on behalf of PGGM.