Last week PitchBook published its Fund Returns Report, 1Q 2012 Edition (sponsored by BMC Group). Compiled from the PitchBook Platform, the report covers a decade of fund returns data for several asset classes, including private equity (buyouts and growth), venture capital, mezzanine, and real estate, with an emphasis on recent performance. One interesting insight from the data is “that the overall economy and financial markets actually have a significant impact on returns over the short and medium terms,” says the introduction to the report. This leads to the conclusion “that there might not be as low of a correlation as previously thought between the public and private markets.” For example:

The J-curve of private equity and venture capital funds is traditionally a phenomenon relating to the age of the fund; however, it turns out that the economy can actually have a large impact, driving both the depth and length of the J-curve. Another area that is always important when evaluating performance is the spread in returns between strong and weak performers, and the corresponding impact that investing in a bottom quartile versus low quartile fund has on returns for investors.

These are just a few of the areas that the new PitchBook report covers; to access your copy, click here.