Calpers Versus Mercury News: Disclosure Comes to Private Equity

20 Pages Posted: 21 Oct 2008

See all articles by Susan Chaplinsky

Susan Chaplinsky

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business

Abstract

In November 2002, a California state court required the California Public Employees' Retirement Systems (CalPERS) to publicly report its returns on private-equity investments. This case examines the controversy surrounding the disclosure of private-equity returns mandated by this court decision. It includes discussions of the reaction of general and limited partners and the issues surrounding the sizable amounts of pension money invested in alternative investments. The CalPERS decision dovetailed with efforts by the Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR) and the British and European Venture Capital Associations to reach greater agreement on disclosure standards in reporting the results of private-equity investments. The case details one set of standards, AIMR's Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS), which would become effective January 1, 2005. Students are asked to calculate the proposed metrics for a typical fund and assess their usefulness to a prospective investor. More broadly, the case addresses the type of information necessary to properly benchmark private-equity returns and the consequences of this type of disclosure to the industry.

Excerpt

UVA-F-1438

Rev. Mar. 13, 2013

CalPERS vERSUS Mercury News:

Disclosure comes to Private Equity

It is better to be approximately right than to be precisely wrong.

—National Venture Capital Association

. . .

Keywords: venture capital entrepreneurship valuation investment performance

Suggested Citation

Chaplinsky, Susan J., Calpers Versus Mercury News: Disclosure Comes to Private Equity. Darden Case No. UVA-F-1438, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=909754 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.909754

Susan J. Chaplinsky (Contact Author)

University of Virginia - Darden School of Business ( email )

P.O. Box 6550
Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550
United States
434-924-4810 (Phone)
434-243-7676 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.darden.virginia.edu/faculty/chaplinsky.htm

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
303
Abstract Views
1,916
Rank
182,927
PlumX Metrics