%0 Journal Article %A Daniel Steger %T The Returns of Private Equity Funds: A Swiss Perspective %D 2017 %R 10.3905/jpe.2017.20.2.015 %J The Journal of Private Equity %P 15-27 %V 20 %N 2 %X The author presents private equity fund returns in absolute terms and relative to the public market. The study is based on a unique, hand-collected dataset containing 531 private equity funds and 25,130 cash flow data points, representing 45% of Swiss pension funds’ private equity investments. Analysis shows a cross-sectional mean internal rate of return of 9% for direct private equity funds, 18% for buyout funds, –4% for venture funds, and 12% for funds of funds. Furthermore, private equity funds have outperformed broader public market indexes by 9% to 19% over the lifetime of a fund, with buyout funds being the best performing subgroup.TOPICS: Private equity, developed, performance measurement, statistical methods %U https://jpe.pm-research.com/content/iijpriveq/20/2/15.full.pdf