Pantheon sells fund interests

PIP, the London-listed investment trust of Pantheon Ventures, has sold a number of its fund interests in an effort to boost the company's liquidity to meet its commitments.

The fund interests that the firm has agreed to dispose include a significant percentage which are unfunded commitments - totalling £206m. This will effectively reduce PIP's unfunded commitments from £687m to £481m. The assets were sold at a 62% discount to their carrying value. The quoted private equity fund-of-funds anticipates a loss of approximately £68m on the holding value of these assets.

The sales are designed to increase liquidity and allow PIP to meet commitments to existing fund interests through 2010 and beyond. Like many of its listed peers, the fund has hit problems as a result of its over-commitment strategy, which relied on distributions from exits to meet future capital calls. They are sparse, though not non-existent: In the last announced quarter to Dec 31st, distributions of £43.1m had been received.

In March, PIP's net asset value per share was 954.7 pence, a 15.2% decrease from 31 December 2008. The vehicle represents around 9% of the total assets managed by Pantheon.

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