PitchBook-长荣基金的回报（英）-2025_12页_810kb

The Return of Evergreen Funds

1. Market Growth and Structure

   • Wealth-focused evergreen funds are estimated at approximately $427 billion, with recent growth driven by high-net-worth demand.
   • These funds offer semi-liquid access to private markets, combining institutional diversification with mutual fund-like convenience.
   • Key asset classes include private debt, real estate, infrastructure, and venture capital.

2. Performance and Risk Dispersion

   • Dispersion is high across strategies, especially in private equity and real estate.
   • Over the 12 months ending in 2025, the median return for Evergreen Funds was 13.8%, exceeding private debt (7.8%) and real estate (3%).
   • Strategies like private equity and infrastructure tend to outperform, often aided by secondary transactions, while real estate and public market-focused funds show lower returns.

3. Benchmarking Challenges

   • Few standardized benchmarks exist, making risk-adjusted performance comparison difficult.
     -Traditional public benchmarks often don’t reflect the risk profile or liquidity of these funds.
     -PitchBook and Morningstar are pioneering Evergreen Fund Indexes, though limitations in methodology remain (e.g., cash drag, fee structures).

4. Key Takeaways

   • Long-Term Viability: The long-term success depends on accessing strong deal flow, portfolio quality, and managing inflows/outflows.
   • Fee Structure: These funds typically collect higher fees than public markets, including cash drag and GPs’ carried interests.
   • Recent Developments: Strategies relying heavily on secondaries (e.g., fund stake acquisitions) lead to early gains, but sustainability is uncertain over time.

5. Cautionary Tale: Wildermuth Fund

   • Performance breakdown and reversed flows during market stress.
   • Lack of inherent liquidity buffers leaves investors vulnerable to NAV declines even after fund termination.

6. Benchmark and Index Development

   • New Evergreen Fund Indexes focus on like-for-like strategy baselines, initially available via Morningstar.
   • Key goals: Enable peer comparisons, performance attribution, and improve assessment of risk-adjusted returns.

7. Final Thoughts

   • While a promising growth path, the category needs stronger industry standards and robust benchmarking for allocators to make informed decisions.
   • Governance, operational durability, and clarity in fee structures are critical for continued adoption and long-term credibility.