New Insights on the Functioning and Performance of Private Markets Evergreen Funds

Advisor: Dr. Sara Boni

Type: Master's Thesis
Start: asap

Overview

Evergreen funds represent a rapidly growing segment of private markets. They offer semi-liquid access to private markets, differing significantly from traditional closed-end drawdown funds. While evergreen funds have existed in real estate for decades, their recent expansion into private equity and credit has attracted attention from both institutional and retail investors. These funds allow continuous capital inflows and periodic redemptions, making them appealing for investors seeking flexibility and simplified portfolio management.

Despite their growing popularity, academic research on evergreen funds remains scarce. Key questions include how evergreen funds manage liquidity, deploy capital, and perform relative to traditional drawdown funds.

This thesis aims to provide descriptive and comparative insights into evergreen funds using publicly available data. The focus will be on analyzing fund characteristics, liquidity management, and performance metrics, and contrasting these with traditional drawdown funds where possible.

Objective

Literature Review
- Summarize existing research on evergreen vs. drawdown fund structures, including liquidity management, capital deployment, and investor implications.
- Discuss theoretical advantages and disadvantages of evergreen funds (e.g., continuous investment, reinvestment risk mitigation, liquidity trade-offs).
- Review recent industry trends and regulatory considerations for retail access to private markets.
- Investigate potential agency conflicts and valuation challenges in evergreen structures.
Descriptive Analysis
- Collect publicly available data on evergreen funds (e.g., fund size, strategy, liquidity buffers, redemption policies, performance metrics).
- Analyze key characteristics:
  - Fund structure: NAV-based pricing, liquidity provisions, fee models.
  - Portfolio composition: Allocation to private assets vs. liquid assets.
  - Investor base: Retail vs. institutional focus.
  - Returns: reported returns, volatility, and liquidity ratios for evergreen funds.
- Compare evergreen funds to traditional drawdown funds using available benchmarks (e.g., MSCI-Burgiss data, industry reports) and similar public investments.

Requirements

Interest in private markets and fund structures.
Strong analytical skills and ability to work with structured and unstructured data.
Experience of working in Excel and possibly Python/ R/ etc. for data collection, visualization and analysis.

Suggested Literature

Brown, G., & Volckmann, W. (2025). Evergreen vs. Drawdown Funds: Risk, Returns and Cash Flows. IPC Working Paper.
Balloch, C., Mainardi, F., Oh, S., Vokata, P., (2025). Democratizing Private Markets: Private Equity Performance of Individual Investors. SSRN Working Paper.
Clark, E. RISE OF PRIVATE EQUITY EVERGREENS - Moving From IRRs to Time Weighted Returns. EDHEC Infra & Private Assets (EIPA) working paper.

Contact & Application

If you are interested in writing your thesis on this topic, please indicate this in your application. Please note that this topic can be expanded and/or taken in other directions depending on the student's own interests and ideas.

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