Key Takeaways
- • The 2018 HEC-DowJones Private Equity Performance Ranking evaluated 502 PE firms across 898 buyout funds raised between 2005 and 2014, representing $1.293 trillion in aggregate equity volume, establishing a comprehensive methodology for measuring historical PE performance across vintage years.
- • This ranking addresses a historical gap in private equity transparency by moving beyond size-based metrics to measure actual investor returns, answering the critical question of which firms generated superior performance for their limited partners over the measurement period.
- • The ranking methodology aggregates performance data across multiple funds and vintage years for each firm, incorporating both relative and absolute return measures to provide a nuanced assessment of competitive positioning within the PE industry.
- • Since 2009, HEC Paris and Dow Jones have partnered to produce annual performance rankings that evaluate not only historical returns but also expected future competitiveness, filling a void in PE benchmarking that historically relied only on firm size as a ranking metric.
- • Thoma Bravo is identified as a top performer in this 2018 ranking, reflecting strong aggregate returns delivered to investors across its portfolio of buyout funds during the measurement period.
Summary
The 2018 HEC-DowJones Private Equity Performance Ranking represents a systematic effort to quantify and compare the historical performance of the world's largest private equity firms based on investor returns rather than firm size alone. The ranking evaluated data from 502 PE firms managing 898 buyout funds raised between 2005 and 2014, encompassing $1.293 trillion in aggregate equity capital. This comprehensive dataset provides institutional investors, family offices, and alternative investment professionals with a rare window into relative PE performance across a meaningful sample of the market.
The methodology underlying this ranking addresses a longstanding opacity challenge in private equity. Traditional PE rankings relied exclusively on firm size metrics, which offer limited insight into actual capital efficiency or investor outcomes. The HEC-DowJones approach aggregates performance across all funds managed by each firm, accounting for differences in vintage years and utilizing both relative and absolute return measures. This enables comparison across firms that may have raised funds during different market cycles and at different scales, yielding a more accurate assessment of consistent performance generation.
Since establishing the partnership in 2009, HEC Paris and Dow Jones have published regular editions of this ranking, establishing it as a principal benchmark for PE firm competitiveness. The 2018 edition identifies Thoma Bravo among the top performing private equity firms globally, reflecting superior aggregate returns delivered to investors across its fund portfolio. The ranking directly answers the fundamental question facing institutional capital allocators: which PE firms have consistently generated the best performance for their investors over an extended measurement period, accounting for market conditions and fund maturity across multiple vintages.
The methodology underlying this ranking addresses a longstanding opacity challenge in private equity. Traditional PE rankings relied exclusively on firm size metrics, which offer limited insight into actual capital efficiency or investor outcomes. The HEC-DowJones approach aggregates performance across all funds managed by each firm, accounting for differences in vintage years and utilizing both relative and absolute return measures. This enables comparison across firms that may have raised funds during different market cycles and at different scales, yielding a more accurate assessment of consistent performance generation.
Since establishing the partnership in 2009, HEC Paris and Dow Jones have published regular editions of this ranking, establishing it as a principal benchmark for PE firm competitiveness. The 2018 edition identifies Thoma Bravo among the top performing private equity firms globally, reflecting superior aggregate returns delivered to investors across its fund portfolio. The ranking directly answers the fundamental question facing institutional capital allocators: which PE firms have consistently generated the best performance for their investors over an extended measurement period, accounting for market conditions and fund maturity across multiple vintages.
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