Private Equity

PGGM is a major global private equity investor with a long and established track record. Together with top-tier private equity fund managers we invest globally in a large variety of private companies.

Private equity is an important investment category for PGGM to realize a sustainable and valuable pension for participants of our pension fund clients, including our main client PFZW. The risk profile of investing in private equity is generally higher than for other asset classes, but private equity generally also generates higher returns. PGGM’s private equity objective is to outperform the public markets by 2.5%, which we have exceeded historically.

While the private equity portfolio is well diversified, the majority of investments are in developed countries, primarily the US and Western Europe, with a focus on buyout investments. The underlying investments in the portfolio are broadly diversified across sectors, with particularly significant exposure to Information Technology, Industrials, Consumer Discretionary, Health Care and Financials. Note, however, that we are in principle sector agnostic.

14 bn (EUR) assets

private equity portfolio as at December 2020

3 bn (EUR) committed yearly

in funds, co-investments and secondaries

13 % average net return

over the past 10 year

125 More than 125

LPAC seats

History

PGGM was an early investor in private equity, starting in 1983. From 2000 until 2011, it outsourced its private equity investments to AlpInvest, a joint venture between APG and PGGM. In 2009, PGGM decided to build up its in-house private equity team again and the first internal PGGM Private Equity Fund was launched in 2010. In 2011, PGGM sold its interest in AlpInvest to the Carlyle Group. Currently, AlpInvest is still committing €200m per year to lower US mid-market private equity funds (funds with a target size below $2bn) on behalf of PGGM. Please refer to the AlpInvest website for more information about them.

Private Equity per Geography

Private Equity per Industry

Private Equity per Strategy

(Data as per December 2020)

ESG reporting

We have developed an ESG reporting template, in collaboration with APG, MN and AlpInvest. This helps PGGM understand and monitor the ESG implementation at the fund and portfolio company level. Additionally, PGGM’s PE team has published an annual Responsible Investment report in 2018, 2019 and 2020 to describe its efforts to integrate ESG into its investment process.

Investment Approach
Team
Selected Investments

The long term objective of the PGGM Private Equity (“PGGM PE”) team is to generate attractive risk-adjusted net returns for its clients equal to or above the relevant benchmark, corresponding to returns of 2.5% or more above public markets.

In this section we provide more information on the composition of the PGGM Private Equity team.

PGGM is investing in or alongside top-tier private equity firms, please find an overview of the investments that have been made during 2020 below. Please refer to PFZW’s transparency list for a complete overview of their private equity investments.

Investment Approach Investment Approach

Team Team

Selected Investments Selected Investments

13 jul 2021
Blog
Assetmanagement

PE industry is gradually producing better ESG data

Our latest PGGM’s Private Equity Responsible Investment Report 2020 describes our effort to improve the quality of ESG reporting by our General Partners, says Christine Winslow.