Vintage-Year Games and Controversies

Michael Elio, Managing Director of Industry Affairs at the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), Andrea Auerbach, Managing Director and Head of Private Investment Research at Cambridge Associates, and William Chu, Vice President at Zurich Alternative Asset Management.

When is a private equity fund “born?” Upon its legal establishment? After the first capital call? And how is it that GPs are able to seemingly shop for a vintage year in which their fund shows the best relative performance? This is the second of a four-part groundbreaking series on private equity performance.