WTW Investments, the institutional private equity business of WTW, has launched its first pooled fund for financial advisers and individual professional investors.
Subject to regulatory approval, the firm will launch a private equity-focused fund named WTW Private Equity Access Fund (WTW PEAF) which will invest in private equity opportunities.
It is the first time the institutional business has made a fund available for individual professional investors and it has already received over US$500 million ($772 million) in commitments ahead of launch.
WTW said it is also seeking to support industry initiatives to align the long-term investing needs of pension savers into assets which can be typically hard to access. Further fund launches are possible, focused on broadening its savings offering.
A share class for professional investors has a minimum investment size of US$125,000 ($194,000).
It said it believes private equity can offer “a high illiquidity premium, provide the greatest opportunity to maximise long-term returns from private markets and are therefore where long-term illiquid DC asset strategies should start”.
The fund also includes mechanisms to ensure valuation alignment to the net asset value of the underlying assets and liquidity alignment to redemption timing.
Following three years of work in development, it expects to launch in the third quarter of this year.
Nick Kelly, director of investments, Australia, at WTW added: “This is a truly innovative solution which will meet the needs of a variety of investors in Australia.
“In particular, this will appeal to asset owners who are seeking to build a private equity program but do not have the internal expertise and governance to do this. It could also be interesting for investors looking to add co-investments to an existing more mature private equity program. The fund has increased liquidity relative to traditional private equity funds.
“This, coupled with extremely competitive fees and access to some of the world’s pre-eminent GPs, makes WTW PEAF a really interesting proposition for the Australian market.”
WTW Investments focuses on risk assessment, strategic asset allocation and investment manager selection with US$187 billion in assets under management and US$4.7 trillion in assets under advisory. It is part of the wider WTW Group which provides data-driven solutions around people, risk and capital, and services 140 countries.
