机构观察站丨优秀的LP，会帮GP做三件事

-LPGP观察-

一，优秀的LP，会帮GP做3件事

二，LP怎么看出售部分股权的GP？

一，优秀的LP，会帮GP做3件事

 成为优秀的风险基金LP所秉持的三个理念：

1996年在加州成立的Sapphire Ventures是一家管理规模超14亿美元的投资机构，所投领域主要有企业服务、软件和电子商务。在投资企业之外，他们还作为LP，投资全球的早期风险基金，一般单笔投资规模为500-2500万美元，其投资团队的Laura Thompson分享了他们成为优秀的风险基金LP所秉持的三个理念。

1.做长期的合作伙伴

要成为一名优秀的LP，必须有长远的眼光，这需要两个意识：

（1）专注的心态：虽然VC基金的寿命通常是10年，但是大多数基金的清算时间可能是12年甚至更久。如果LP做出了承诺，就需要秉承与基金长期合作的意图进行投资。LP当然也可以放眼于重新投资其他基金，但第一步还是继续投资现有的基金，除非基金表现实在不佳，或者GP发生了重大变化。

（2）资本的后续部署：要履行自己作为出资人的责任，LP需要适当地管理自己的资本，这样他们就有能力向GP做出后续出资承诺。GP也应该有信心，如果尽到自己的职责，表现良好，那么LP就会和他们继续共事。GP和LP不应该在“钱什么时候到账”方面，花掉各自最多的时间。

2.资本以外的价值更重要

优秀的LP能提供超越资本的价值，尽管每个GP认同的价值可能不一样。Sapphire Ventures为GP提供价值的方法有：

（1）提问：LP鼓励和支持GP，但也要提出值得思考的问题。LP之所以具有独特的地位，是因为他们知道，团队、战略、投资组合以及其他GP在投资和公司管理方面正在做或已经做了什么。LP可以利用这些知识向GP提问。为什么要这么做？归根结底，LP投资GP是因为相信他们，也相信他们的决定，但如果LP能让GP思考，哪怕只是重申他们的决定，对每个人也会有帮助，不管是LP自己，还是GP，或者潜在的标的公司。

（2）市场洞察和分析：LP可以利用他们在自己的投资组合中学到的知识、见解和数据，为GP提供基准，讨论估值或投资趋势，而不仅仅是GP能触及的信息。有时候，LP能提供特定于某个行业的知识，以Sapphire Ventures为例，他们的Sapphire Sport组建了一个由体育界关键人物和龙头企业参与的LP investment vehicle，不仅能够提出最新的市场洞见，而且还能在关键问题提供支持和帮助。

（3）基金管理：LP也可以帮助基金构建或者管理的问题。经验丰富的LP知道很多有用或者不可行的基金架构、分配机制和管理模式，能让GP从中获得启发。

（4）介绍：LP可以为GP做引荐，无论是对其他LP、GP，还是客户、甚至关键人才。Sapphire往往会为他们的GP及其投资组合公司介绍以下三种类型的资源：

a. 其他投资人。Sapphire向其他投资人（包括其他LP和基金后续的投资人）介绍他们的GP或者风险投资团队，这种方法适合早期投资组合，因为他们基本上后期会在C轮开始投资。

b. 业务发展。通过他们的Portfolio Growth团队，Sapphire Ventures在过去几年向新客户和合作伙伴做了数百次介绍，他们的业务开发团队每年为全球2000家公司举办大约40个高管创新日活动。

c. 人才。Sapphire Ventures有一个内部的人才主管，帮助GP为他们的投资组合打造人才引荐渠道。Sapphire还与一个由GP和企业家组织的团体合作，为自己的投资组合公司和GP推荐经验丰富的人才。

3.为更广泛的生态系统做出贡献

一直以来，LP为风险基金的整个生态系统做出贡献的意识容易被忽视。Laura认为，在一个积极且不断发展的大环境里工作，就有责任让它变得更好。除了资金，还有很多LP能做的，比如为新成立的基金提供咨询，或者帮GP建立联系。

  3 Things that Make a Great Limited Partner For A Venture Fund：

This post originally appeared on www.sapphireventures.com on Feb. 8th, 2019 and was written by Laura Thompson, a principal on the Sapphire Partners investment team.

I recently met with a new fund being formed by a group of talented operators. After an hour discussing their strategy, the team mentioned that I had asked insightful questions that they previously hadn’t been asked, particularly around the team and fund construction, which they found helpful as they made final decisions about their fund.

This interaction (while flattering) was not actually a statement about me, but rather a reflection that I happened to be part of their first meeting with an institutional investor. Their comments got me thinking about what makes a truly good limited partner (LP), a topic we take seriously at Sapphire Partners, the investment platform within Sapphire Ventures that invests in global early-stage venture funds as LPs. Venture funds typically have a choice when putting together their syndicate, and this choice can have a large impact on the firm and its future. I thought I’d share Sapphire’s philosophy on what it means to be a good LP for venture funds.

1. Be a long-term partner

A long-term view is essential to being a good LP. There are two primary parts to having a long-term view:

The LP mentality: In our experience, venture funds typically have a 10 year life, although the majority can take much longer than 12 years to liquidate. When an LP makes a commitment, they should invest with the intention of partnering for numerous funds, potentially during various cycles (ps. venture is cyclical!) That doesn’t mean that LPs shouldn’t do their full work for every re-up (they should), but the default should be to reinvest unless there is underperformance or a major change in what a GP is doing.

Availability of capital: To fulfill an LP’s part of the bargain, they should appropriately manage their own capital so they have the capability to make subsequent commitments to GPs. GPs should have confidence that LPs will be with them for more than a few years assuming GPs do their part and perform well.

2. Provide value beyond capital

LPs should provide value past capital, though what each GP considers valuable can be different. I can’t speak for all LPs of course so I will instead speak from our own experience. Some of the ways we deliver value to the GPs we partner with include:

Ask questions: Limited partners should be cheerleaders but also ask thought-provoking questions. LPs are uniquely positioned because of what they know — the team, the strategy, the portfolio AND what other GPs are doing or have done in regards to both investing and firm management. LPs can and should use this knowledge to ask informed questions. Why? Because ultimately, we invest in GPs because we believe in them and trust their decisions. But if we can get GPs thinking, even if it’s just to reaffirm their decisions, it helps everyone: GPs, LPs and often the underlying portfolio companies.(For more about the value of GPs asking good questions, check out my colleague Beezer Clarkson’s post.)

Market insights / analytics: LPs can leverage the knowledge, insights and data they gather across their portfolio to provide benchmarking and discuss valuations or investment trends beyond what a single GP is seeing. Sometimes LPs can provide knowledge specific to a sector. For example, the new Sapphire Sport investment vehicle has deliberately assembled an LP syndicate of key players in the sporting world such as City Football Group and adidas, who can weigh in on trends or markets.

Fund management: LPs can also help with fund formation or fund management questions. A typical LP sees a lot of models of what works and what doesn’t and can help answer questions around topics like reserves and recycling.

Introductions: LPs can help with intros, whether it’s to other LPs, GPs, customers or even key talent. At Sapphire, we tend to make three types of introductions for our GPs and their portfolio:

1，Other investors — we make intros to other investors including other LPs and follow-on investors, such as GPs in our ecosystem or our ventures team, which is a natural fit for most of our early portfolio as they start investing later, typically in the Series C round.

2，Business development — through our Portfolio Growth team we have made hundreds of introductions over the years to new customers and partners. For example, our business development team hosts about 40 executive innovation days annually for Global 2000 companies. All of the innovation days in 2018 included a company or GP in the Sapphire Partners portfolio.

3，Talent — we try to help add talent in several ways. Our firm has an internal head of talent, who can help our GPs develop a pipeline of candidates for their portfolio. We also engage with a large ecosystem of GPs and entrepreneurs, and we can refer experienced talent whether it’s to join a portfolio company or GP.

3，Contribute to the broader ecosystem

One element that I think gets overlooked is the notion of contributing to the venture ecosystem. We work in a pretty amazing, constantly evolving ecosystem, and while I feel very lucky to be part of it, I think we have a responsibility to make it better.

There are tons of ways to contribute beyond giving capital, from advising newly forming funds, to speaking, to making connections. For example, I hosted a dinner last fall with Hana Yang connecting LPs and emerging female GPs; a topic that Beezer and I both plan to spend more time on this year amongst other areas.

This is some of the philosophy we have at Sapphire Partners, and I’m sure there are other perspectives or guidelines for LPs that I’ve missed. Help add to the conversation so that we can collectively make this ecosystem stronger and more valuable and please check out additional LP views at OpenLP.com or by using the #openLP hashtag on Twitter.

Disclaimer: Nothing presented within this article is intended to constitute investment advice, and under no circumstances should any information provided herein be used or considered as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any investment fund managed by Sapphire Ventures. Information provided reflects Sapphire Ventures’ views as of a particular time. Such views are subject to change at any point and Sapphire Ventures shall not be obligated to provide notice of any change. Investment vehicles and funds referred to above do not necessarily represent all of the investments made or recommended by Sapphire Ventures and were not selected based on the performance on Sapphire Ventures’ investment in them as they are presented to describe investment strategy, or approach only. It should not be assumed that the specific investments identified and discussed herein were or will be profitable. No guarantee of investment performance is being provided and no inference to the contrary should be made. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

原文链接https://medium.com/sapphire-ventures-perspectives/3-things-that-make-a-great-limited-partner-for-a-venture-fund-347ac81a6ebf

二，LP怎么看出售部分股权的GP？

 GP出售部分股权和业务的现象一直在涌现：

GP出售部分股权和业务的现象一直在涌现，而且已经从少数人的选择变成了行业中一些平台型投资公司的做法，包括投资了Silver Lake（银湖资本）、Platinum Equity的Dyal Capital Partners，以及高盛旗下的Petershill部门。

“这反映了一个事实，出售股权的GP们都会变得更有吸引力。” 私募股权融资咨询公司Rede Partners的联合创始人Adam Turtle认为。然而，国际私募股权杂志（Private Equity International，下文简称PEI）的调查发现，LP并不完全同意这一点。

近一半（45%）的LP认为，向第三方投资人出售股权的GP会影响他们对于LP的业绩回报。只有12%的LP认为出售股权的GP更具吸引力。并非所有LP都热衷于GP stake，因为对LP来说，GP控制权的转让、条款变更带来的限制、基金管理费用和GP出资比例都是潜在问题。

基本原则是，LP希望GP跟他们的利益保持一致。管理着超500亿美元资产的Harbourvest Partners负责人Alexander Wolf曾说：“LP不希望看到自己投资的GP公司出现一个在战略上有很大发言权的第三方股东，这在本质上会造成投资团队层面的大量价值流失，甚至是人员流失。” Wolf补充说，一般而言，LP喜欢看到经营企业的人和公司所有权之间的关系更纯粹简单一些。

从LPGP关系来看，PEI的LP Perspectives 2020显示，扩充对新GP投资的LP同比下降了，从52.6%降至40.8%。同时，38.7%的人计划保持现有已投资GP数量。这一行为说明，LP正在显著增加自己的出资规模，并继续强力支持表现最佳的GP，美国的公共养老基金都在这么干。

LP对直接投资兴趣的日益增加，是另一个造成现在GPLP关系愈发整合的因素。据Meketa investment Group的Steve Hartt称，CalPERS新的直投计划将与核心GP一起投资，最早将于今年年底推出。包括KKR和Blackstone在内的30位GP组成了这家养老基金巨头的核心GP团队。

1.对first-time funds的看法不一

与上一年的调查结果类似，近50%的LP表示，他们投资首次创业的GP单纯是靠机会，仅仅有8%的LP表示他们这么做的背后是有明确的目标和allocation的。与去年相比，没有计划支持first-time fund的LP比例增加了近7个百分点。

First-time funds是为有勇气的人准备的，尤其是在竞争激烈的环境下。私募基金公司Monument Group的管理合伙人Janet Brooks今年早些时候对PEI表示，一位老牌GP的过往业绩和经验并不总是能保证新基金募资的成功。她认为，GP还需要表现出独树一帜的战略和推进交易的能力，为了获得资金，新经理人还需要做好放弃部分对GP有利的条款、共同投资权和自由裁量权的心理准备。

2.疫情冲击下，对GP交易能力的信心

调查发现，超过50%的LP相信，他们GP的交易结构良好，足以抵御当下的市场情况。

32%的LP持中立态度，14%的人不够相信。随着市场的繁荣号角接近尾声，GP越来越专注于探索更能创造价值的方法，加倍关注那些可以抵御风险和能在成熟市场找到好目标的行业和战略。然而，中美贸易紧张局势和全球地缘政治的不确定性等因素也在影响LP的情绪和对一些投资组合公司前景的看法。

3.LP的首要任务

当谈到LP选择GP的标准时，业绩是尽职调查过程中最重要的部分（93%），与去年的调查结果类似。其次是团队规模和投资能力（88%）以及条款和管理费（76%）。

尽管ESG以及多样性在大多数行业活动中被频繁提起，但它们只是尽职调查过程中的一小部分。事实上，22%被调查的LP认为多样性和包容性并没有被涵盖进考量GP的因素。

 Red lines in the LP-GP relationship：

 Fund managers selling a piece of themselves has been on the rise and has transitioned away from a minority activity to some of the most successful platforms in the industry today including Dyal Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s Petershill unit.  

“It’s the reflection of the fact that GPs are pretty good businesses and are attractive investment opportunities,” said Rede Partners co-founder Adam Turtle in a panel at the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association Summit in London in October.  

Yet limited partners are not too hot on this, according to PEI LP Perspectives Survey 2020.  

Nearly half (45 percent) of investors believe that GPs that sell stakes to third-party investors makes them a less attractive investment partner, while only 12 percent of LPs surveyed believe that GPs which do so make more attractive investment partners.

Not all LPs are keen on GP stakes investments as limitations on transferring and changing of control, governance and questions around the management fee stream and GP commitment are potential issues. 

“The basic principle that investors want to see is alignment with people running the business they are investing in. And where you have third-party ownership in a GP… what you don’t want is a third-party owner who has a lot of say in strategy, which essentially causes a lot of value leakage and even turnover in the investment team level,” Alexander Wolf, a principal at HarbourVest Partners, said in the same BVCA Summit panel.

“The basic principle that investors want to see is alignment with people running the business they are investing in”  Alexander Wolf, HarbourVest Partners

Wolf added that LPs in general like to see a purer relationship between the people running the business and the ownership of the firm. “The devil will be in the detail in these transactions. And it’s still pretty early in the life of these deals,” he said. 

Looking at fund manager relationships, LP Perspectives 2020 shows a decline year-on-year in LPs looking to increase their GP relationships, from 52.6 percent to 40.8 percent. Meanwhile, 38.7 percent plan to keep the number of relationships. A reason behind this is that LPs are increasing their own ticket sizes materially and doubling down on their strongest performers. Big public pensions in the US are clear examples of this.

LPs’ increasing appetite for co-investments is another factor. California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s new co-investment programme, which will invest alongside its core managers, will roll out as early as the end of this year, according to investment advisor, Steve Hartt of Meketa Investment Group. Thirty GPs, including KKR and Blackstone, comprise the pension giant’s core group of managers.

Mixed views on first-time funds  

Similar to findings from the previous year, nearly 50 percent of LPs say they invest in first-time managers opportunistically and 8 percent say they have a defined allocation. The portion of investors that have no plans of backing first-time funds has increased nearly 7 percentage points compared to last year.

Launching a first-time fund is not for the faint-hearted, especially in a fiercely competitive environment. Track record and experience from an established manager does not always translate to a successful fundraise, Janet Brooks, managing partner of placement firm Monument Group told Private Equity International earlier this year. GPs also need to show a differentiated strategy and the ability to generate deal flow. To secure capital, first-time managers also need to be prepared to give up terms, co-investment rights and discretion, she noted.

Confidence in deal structuring  More than 50 percent of LPs are confident their GPs have structured their deals well enough to withstand a market downturn, the survey finds. Thirty-two percent are neutral, and 14 percent are not confident enough. As the boom market comes to an end, GPs have increasingly zoomed into more operationally focused approaches in value creation, as well as doubled down on sectors and strategies that are defensible and find good targets in proven markets. However, wildcards like the US-China trade tension and geopolitical uncertainty across the globe are also affecting investor sentiment and views of the prospects for some portfolio companies.

Top priorities  

When it comes to LPs’ selection criteria for GPs, track record forms the most important part of the due diligence process (93 percent), similar to last year’s findings. This is followed by team size and investment capacity (88 percent) and terms and fees (76 percent).  

ESG considerations as well as diversity and inclusion, although often talked about these days in most industry events, only form a minor part of the diligence process. In fact, 22 percent of LPs surveyed said diversity and inclusion was not covered at all. Findings from last year’s study showed that the gender pay gap was also most likely to form a minor part.  

As Gila Cohen, managing director for real estate and private equity at MUFG, said at the Women in Private Equity Forum in London in November: “Diversity is a big word which means different things to different people. Investors look for the best managers, period.”

原文链接https://www.privateequityinternational.com/lp-gp-relationship/

https://www.privateequityinternational.com/lp-gp-relationship/

以上内容资料来源；溯元育新

原文资料；https://medium.com/sapphire-ventures-perspectives/3-things-that-make-a-great-limited-partner-for-a-venture-fund-347ac81a6ebf

https://www.privateequityinternational.com/lp-gp-relationship/

https://www.privateequityinternational.com/lp-gp-relationship/

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