Pantheon reports good NAV growth in March

The FTSE 250 private equity investor said that in March, valuation gains were 12.8p, investment income added 0.3p, foreign exchange movements were a positive 0.9p and share buybacks added 3.2p, while expenses and taxes took away 0.6p.

Its board said its valuation policy for private equity funds was based on the latest valuations reported by fund managers, and in the case of its 31 March valuation, 14% were dated 31 March, 78% were dated 31 December and 8% were dated 30 September.

Of the 14% of valuations dated 31 March 2022, 12% reflected the mark-to-market fair value adjustment for Pantheon’s listed company holdings.

As at 31 March, Pantheon said its private equity assets stood at £2.14bn, while net available cash balances totalled £236m.

The asset-linked note outstanding as at 31 March amounted to £51m.

Undrawn commitments to investments stood at £699m at the end of March, calculated using exchange rates at that date.

Pantheon said its multi-currency revolving credit facilities comprised a $269.8m facility and a €101.6m facility, which remained undrawn at the end of the month.

The company said it made £73.7m of new commitments during the month to three primaries of £49.7m, five co-investments of £18.3m, and one secondary of £5.7m.

“This included a £17.8m primary commitment to Apax Global Impact Fund I, a global buyout fund focused on sustainable investing; an £8.8m co-investment alongside Sentinel Capital Partners in TriMech, a provider of 3D design software based in the US; [and] a £2.1m co-investment alongside Verdane Capital in Papirfly, a provider of brand activation management software in Norway,” the company said.

It also invested £1.3m in share buybacks during the period, acquiring 439,690 shares at a weighted average price of 296.9p per share.

“This price represented a discount of 29% to the prevailing net asset value per share at the time of the transactions.”