The new Preqin Asian Private Equity Benchmark – the first ever benchmark information made available to the private equity industry on Asian private equity funds – demonstrates how private equity in the region has outperformed the MSCI Pacific and MSCI EMF indices over the one-, three- and five-year periods.
Over three years, Asian private equity has a horizon IRR of 6.6%, compared to annualised returns of 2.4% for the MSCI Pacific and 6.3% for the MSCI EMF. Over five years, Asian private equity shows horizon returns of 6.4%, compared to -2.1% for the MSCI Pacific and 4.9% for the MSCI EMF.
The one-year horizon return for Asian private equity to 30th September 2011 stands at 7.7%; the three year horizon return is 6.6% and the five-year horizon return is 6.4%.
Asian private equity funds of vintage 2001 currently have the highest median returns out of all vintages analyzed, with a median IRR of 31.1% and a median multiple of 2.29x, outperforming North American and European funds of this vintage.
The median IRR for Asian private equity funds is higher than the median IRRs for both North America-focused and Europe-focused private equity funds for each vintage from 2003 to 2008.
Some of these vintages will have been affected by the 2008 crisis; therefore these results demonstrate Asian private equity’s resilience to the downturn compared to the private equity industry in other regions. 
Comment: 

“Preqin has created the first ever Asian Private Equity Benchmark, an important tool for industry professionals looking to benchmark their returns information against the industry as a whole,” says Bronwyn Williams – Manager, Private Equity Performance Data. “The Benchmark demonstrates how Asian private equity has performed relative to the private equity markets in other regions, and shows how Asian private equity performance has remained resilient in the face of the downturn. The Benchmark also demonstrates how Asian private equity has performed in comparison to the public markets, with outperformance over one, three and five years relative to the MCSI Pacific and MSCI EMF indices.”
