Chitra Baskar pens article in Private Equity News on sector’s rising data demands

Chitra Baskar, our Chief Operating Officer and Global Head of Funds and Product, has written an opinion piece in Private Equity News discussing the sector’s increasing focus on transparency.

Chitra states that as private capital funds start to attract more mainstream investors, their CFOs are coming to the realisation that those investors are accustomed to a certain level of transparency.

According to our recent report The future private capital CFO: Evolving in a digital age, CFOs expect their limited partners (LPs) to require data updates with increasing frequency and depth over the next decade. In fact, 63% of survey respondents in Western Europe and 67% in the UK expect their investors to be looking for live or daily updates on their data.

“It is unsurprising that so many CFOs anticipate their investors will soon want such timely updates on portfolio performance; nowadays, so many of us are used to having information at our fingertips. This expectation might seem surprising in relation to private capital funds, though, given that they mostly calculate NAVs monthly or quarterly,” writes Chitra.

Many private capital funds are starting to make investments into technology. However, Chitra opines that though there may be good intention behind finding in-house solutions like expanding finance teams, the complexities involved can cause significant and, in many cases, unexpected costs.

Chitra closes the article with some advice for private fund CFOs:

It is for this reason that outsourcing is a growing trend in Europe, enabling GPs to focus on what they do best – raising and investing assets.

You can read the full article on the Private Equity News website, here.