Investment team follows private Equity Holding

01 August 2001

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Following the announcement that Swiss Life Private Equity Partners Ltd (SLPEP) has taken over the management of Private Equity Holding AG (PEH) from Bank Vontobel AG, it has emerged that a number of personnel have moved with the fund to join SLPEP. Ulrich Geilinger and Dominik Meyer have become partners at the company, joining David Salim, Andrea Gambazzi and Alexander Pfeifer. Other new arrivals include Ralph Aerni, Yves Huwyler, Petr Rojicek, Christoph Huber, Eva Kalias and Chantal Portenier. SLPEP now manages private equity programs in excess of SFr 4bn, including Swiss Life's own SFr 2bn program, PEH and 5E Holding AG. PEH also recently announced the secondary sale of seven portfolio investments to an undisclosed buyer for a total cash consideration of SFr 243m. The transaction reduces outstanding commitments to private equity funds by Sfr 98m and lowers total commitments by SFr 366m. The total price for the sale is in excess of the corresponding net acquisition cost but below current fair value. As such it will result in a positive contribution to net profit of some SFr 20m and a reduction in fair value of the remaining portfolio by around SFr 7 per share. The fund also reported a net loss of SFr 28.7m in the first quarter of the 2001-2002 financial year caused by write-downs, particularly in the venture portfolio. This compares to a net profit of SFr 41.8m in the corresponding period last year. Securities trading losses (SFr 13.8m) and write-downs (SFr 39.5m) together exceeded total capital gains on fund and direct investments amounting to SFr 36.7m. The write-downs were primarily related to venture funds but also to a lesser degree to other fund investments. As of 30 June 2001, consolidated equity of PEH amounted to SFr 1.57bn (SFr 1.36bn as of March 2001). The consideration of the new International Accounting Standards (IAS 39) under which unrealised appreciation is taken into account within equity explains the increase since March 2001. As of the end of the first quarter of 2001/2002 PEH is fully invested with investments amounting to SFr 1.64bn and total commitments of SFr 2.60bn.