3rd December 2025
This report is powered by TESS, Clipway’s Tech-Enabled Secondaries System – a next-generation investment and monitoring tool that puts data science at the core of LP-Led secondaries investing. TESS capitalises on the large volume of data generated by diversified portfolios of private equity funds, which has historically been underutilised. These insights are driven by over 1,943 funds and 21,300 underlying portfolio companies currently in the TESS database.
In this edition of Clipway Insights, we have used TESS’ database to analyse how unrealised companies are valued by private equity managers.
We look at a large dataset and frame those valuations in the context of business fundamentals, particularly growth, and the company’s ability to delever. We also introduce an internal valuation-to-growth metric we have developed, “VEqG” (Valuation to Equity Growth), which helps contextualise the company’s valuation multiple as it relates to the growth in its equity value (not just its EBITDA) since FY 2022.
Thanks to our scalable database, we can assess this ratio across thousands of eligible companies at recent record dates, and use the conclusions to determine what could be sensible ranges of that ratio, and benchmarks.
4th September 2024
Clipway, a global secondaries firm that leverages proprietary technology to optimise its investment strategy, is pleased to announce the addition of Benoît Verbrugghe as Managing Partner.
10th July 2024
In this edition of Clipway Insights, we uncover some interesting patterns in the valuation of private equity portfolio companies with TESS data that suggests GPs may be reluctant to start marking down underperforming assets. We find that these underperforming assets are statistically more likely to fall within the bottom 20-30% of the net asset value (NAV) of the mature private equity fund portfolios that secondary players tend to price. We examine the differences between these “Small” exposures compared to “Large” exposures, which account for the top 70-80% of NAV. In particular, we look at the increased volatility in final outcomes for “Small” exposures and the potential impact on investor returns in the context of LP-led secondary transactions.