A private equity once valued at more than US$2 billion is now worth next to nothing according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, which was also covered by Reuters. EnerVest Ltd., a Houston-based private equity firm focused on energy investment in oil has among its client base major pension funds, endowments and charitable foundations. These investors are now facing losses that will leave them with at most pennies on the dollar according to the WSJ.
According to data from Cambridge Associates, only seven private equity firms valued at over $1 billion have ever lost money for investors and losses of this size are extremely rate.
Major EnerVest investors include the J. Paul Getty Trust, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur and Fletcher Jones foundations, which all had millions in the fund, according to their tax filings noted the WSJ. The Orange County Employees Retirement System, also an investor, has marked the value of its investment to zero according to the report.