Buzz Archive:
Family Offices: A Growing Source of Investment

by Simon Witney, Partner, SJ Berwin LLP, 1/31/2008

A study issued by the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EVCA), highlights one (of many) growing sources of funding for private equity funds - family offices - and also reveals some of their investment preferences. As an increasing number of retiring entrepreneurs in Europe establish large pools of capital for re-investment - and as many of them become more familiar with private equity as an asset class (in many cases because they have sold their family business to a private equity fund) - the opportunities for fund raising are clear. But family offices come in many shapes and sizes, and they can be idiosyncratic investors, often with different objectives to institutional limited partners.