Pantheon International PLC's (LSE:PIN) shares offer investors an "attractive" way to gain diversified exposure to private equity on a global basis, with an "excessively wide" discount of 46% to net assets that "offers significant value", Numis said on the back of the investment trust's interest results yesterday.
The results did not have a huge amount of new information, as the 4% to 469.5p rise in November NAV had already been published, although the broker said they contained some interesting commentary on the market backdrop and portfolio.
"The widening of the discount has been driven by investor concerns around private equity valuations, particularly given Pantheon has some exposure to Growth and Venture stage investments, but we believe these have been overdone given the quality of underlying companies, a view which appears to be supported by valuation marks to date from various PE managers."
Pantheon has an experienced and well-resourced management team, the broker noted, with 140 investment professionals globally and US$89bn in assets under management.
The listed fund, known as PIP, has a "mature portfolio offering diversified exposure to buyouts, growth and venture", with 54% invested directly in companies, and a long-term record of 12.3% per year NAV growth since inception in 1987, significantly ahead of the equivalent returns for the MSCI World and FTSE All Share Index of 7.5% and 8.4%, respectively on a sterling basis.