About listed private equity

What is listed private equity?

Listed private equity offers the opportunity for stock market investors to participate in a diversified portfolio of unlisted companies, otherwise available only to large institutions.

How listed private equity works

Private equity funds are typically only available to very large investors who have the financial resources to make significant long-term commitments.

As a consequence, traditional forms of private equity can be difficult to access for the vast majority of smaller investors. Furthermore, it is an illiquid asset class and traditional structures can lock in investors.

Many of these issues can be addressed by investing in listed private equity companies. For example:

• There is no minimum size of investment
• The investment is made via shares listed on an exchange that are liquid and can be bought and sold on a daily basis
• Investors avoid the need to manage ‘commitments’ to fund future investments
• The value of the holding is easily determined by the share price quoted on the Exchange
• The administration of a holding in a Listed Private Equity vehicle is as simple as any other share of a listed company, as is the tax treatment

There are two main types of listed private equity vehicles, direct investment companies (like OCI) and funds of funds:

Listed private equity offers the opportunity for stock market investors to participate in a diversified portfolio of unlisted companies, otherwise available only to large institutions.

OCI is a member of LPeC (now part of Invest Europe), an international association of listed private equity companies. For more information on the listed private equity sector, please visit Invest Europe's website.