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 Worldwide, around one-third of investors said the same, according to
the Global Private Equity Barometer by secondary market investor
Coller Capital.
"People have been more in a wait and see mode, but they are starting
to look at things in this space," said Alberto Fumo, Head of the UK
Private Equity Practice at management consultant AT Kearney.
Buyout funds poured $31 billion into the oil and gas sector in 2014,
far above the $8 billion invested in the previous five years,
according to Thomson Reuters data.
Oil and gas have traditionally been seen as riskier assets for long
term private equity investors, due to the difficulty of forecasting
returns in an area prone to commodity price swings.
But in a low interest environment, and with asset prices pushed up
amid fierce competition from funds, Limited Partners (LP), or those
who invest in private equity funds, seem to be adopting a more
risk-on attitude.
Over half of them globally have invested in debut funds since the
financial crisis, the survey said.
New funds often struggle to gain momentum because of a lack of track
record.
RESTRUCTURING
The financial crisis has meant some private equity fund managers, or
General Partners (GPs), have been unable to improve assets either in
value terms or operationally, or to sell them as quickly as they
would have liked.
Some are now reassessing their structures alongside their investors,
for example by increasing their holding periods, or rolling over
assets into new funds.
Around four-fifths of investors have taken part in fund
restructurings since the financial crisis, the survey showed.
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"Five or ten years ago, when you had a fund restructuring it was of
a GP that hadn't performed and couldn't raise a new fund," said
Michael Schad, Partner at Coller Capital.
"Now a lot of LPs and GPs are thinking, how can we get a liquidity
solution that works for everyone involved?"
However, only 52 percent of investors see longer life funds as a
valuable option, with the other half believing private equity is not
suited to such a structure, the survey said.
U.S. deals have performed the best in investors' private equity
portfolios, with almost half delivering annual net returns of over
16 percent. Europe trails the United States with less than a third
of buyouts achieving that goal.
(Reporting By Freya Berry; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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