New Private Markets Covers Greater Share

This article by Senhal Shah discusses the work of Greater Share founder Paul Fletcher to create a fund of funds focused on giving. (Registration required).

Excerpt:

Six private equity giants have signed up to a new philanthropic investment model, designed to fund education-focused non-governmental organisations.

Advent, Permira, Bain Capital, Cinven, Hg and Nautic Partners will donate a portion of their fund management fees and carry to education charities and NGOs through a partnership with Greater Share.

Structured as a fund of funds, the vehicle will invest in the PE firms’ funds; meanwhile, the GPs will donate their management fees and carried interest from Greater Share’s portion of the funds to a selection of education NGOs.

Investors in the Greater Share fund of funds are mainly high-net-worth individuals making minimum commitments of $500,000. These investors will donate 50 percent or 100 percent of their capital gains to the NGOs. Greater Share aims to generate $300 million over 10 years for these NGOs from the PE firms’ and investors’ donations.

“Most high-net-worth investors want to have exposure to high-returning alternatives, in particular private equity. But they can’t get access to the very best funds,” Paul Fletcher, founder and chair of Greater Share and former chief executive and chair of UK development finance institution CDC, told New Private Markets. “The private equity firms are offering space for investors to invest in their funds.”