Shareholders of the Guernsey-domiciled, London-listed closed-ended Bear Stearns Private Equity fund have approved a change in the company’s name to
Shareholders of the Guernsey-domiciled, London-listed closed-ended Bear Stearns Private Equity fund have approved a change in the company’s name to J.P. Morgan Private Equity at an extraordinary general meeting last week, reflecting the acquisition of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan in March.
JPMorgan says the name change will provide shareholders with the benefits of investor familiarity with the brand while retaining the private equity investment expertise of the existing management team, led by Gregory Getschow and Troy Duncan, who will remain responsible for all investment decisions and other day-to-day activities. The name change will become effective following approval from the Guernsey Registry.
“We are very excited to be a part of JPMorgan’s world-class franchise,” Getschow says. “The name change reflects our association with the JPMorgan brand and we believe that this is an extremely positive event as J.P. Morgan Private Equity enters its fourth fiscal year. We look forward to continuing to produce superior risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders as part of JPMorgan Asset Management.”
David Barron, head of investment trusts at JPMorgan Asset Management, says: “The managers have demonstrated excellent performance and are known throughout the private equity community for their superior approach to private equity investing. We look forward to working closely with this experienced team.”
J.P. Morgan Private Equity invests with leading private equity managers and invests in private equity assets through secondary purchases and direct investments in Europe, North America and Asia.
The fund employs a global macro approach that seeks to generate superior risk-adjusted returns and to diversify investments by manager, industry, region, investment strategy, investment stage and vintage year. Its aim is to build a well-balanced diverse global private equity portfolio through secondary investments, co-investments and selective primary fund allocations.
Since its launch on June 30, 2005, J.P. Morgan Private Equity has achieved annualised bet asset value growth of 21.9 per cent, while its share price has increased by an average of 19.5 per cent.
At the end of June the fund was invested in 161 funds and 11 direct investments. The 10 largest investments were Hunter Acquisition (7.4 per cent), Global Opportunistic Fund (5.6 per cent), Alcentra Euro Mezzanine No 1 Fund (3.4 per cent), OCM European Principal Opportunities Fund (3.2 per cent), Liberty Partners II and Avista Capital Partners (Offshore) and Omega Fund III (3.1 per cent each), Hutton Collins Capital Partners II (3.0 per cent), Esprit Capital I Fund (2.9 per cent) and Almack Mezzanine I Fund (2.6 per cent).
JPMorgan Asset Management manages the largest range of investment trusts in the UK with a total of 20 investment trusts and companies covering various regions, countries and sectors, with GBP6.1bn in assets under management. JPMorgan Asset Management had a total of USD1.2trn in assets under management at the end of June and offices in 40 locations worldwide.
