HVPE is a FTSE 250-listed investment company offering investors exposure to a portfolio of private companies, in effect opening access to what has been an opaque and difficult to access asset class. It offers exposure to more than 1000 private companies on a global basis across a range of sectors and asset types, with 30% of its portfolio in venture and growth equity. Its aim is to provide steady annual NAV returns, with 10-year net NAV growth of 14%, far outstripping the 5% CAGR offered by the FTSE All World index.

In this interview we talk to manager Richard Hickman about how diversification across the private equity spectrum helps deliver consistently above average performance; the rationale behind high weightings to tech, consumer services and healthcare, and how the returns on more traditional sectors are benefitting from the application of technology; the growth of private equity into a self-sustaining ecosystem and the weakening ‘pull factor’ of public markets; reasons for the large discounts on PE trusts, and the impact of a recent lull in the IPO market; and the rationale behind the creation of a shareholder distribution pool.