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ING launches listed private equity vehicle in Australia

Global investment company ING Investment Management has launched Australia's first listed private equity fund of funds, ING Private Equity Access Ltd (ING PEAL). ING PEAL opens to raise up to $120m from Australian and New Zealand investors.

Capital will originally be invested in the Australian listed equities market, in a strategy structured to include a bias towards companies that pay higher levels of dividends and franking credits. The long-term allocation of ING PEAL will be about 90 per cent private equity and ten per cent listed securities and cash.

The fund of funds will invest across a diversified range of established underlying private equity managers, with target returns of 20 per cent per annum over the long term.

'We are seeing a lot of upside in Australia's private equity sector,' ING Investment Management chief executive and executive director of PEAL, Grant Bailey, told Australian publication The Age. 'Furthermore, it is widely recognised by the asset consulting community that adding some exposure to private equity can reduce the overall risk of a typical balanced portfolio.'

'Australia has had the best performing private equity market in the world over the past few years, which serves to validate the notion that the sector has finally come of age,' added Jon Schahinger, the ING managing director who will be spearheading the fund's investment strategy.

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