NETHERLANDS - The €58bn private equity investor AlpInvest saw its return rise by 2.7% to 10.7% last year on the back of a recovering private equity climate.

The net life-to-date internal return on assets under management for its key sponsors - APG and PGGM - is now more than 28%, according to its annual report for 2010.

AlpInvest said the volume of private equity investments had "more than doubled", while valuations also continued to "recover markedly".

In its annual report, it predicted 2011 would develop positively again, with "substantial opportunities because of the restructuring of asset holdings in the financial sector".

However, nobody was available to comment on the effects of the recent deepening of the market crisis.

Until 2010, AlpInvest was directly owned by APG and PGGM, the asset managers of the €240bn civil service scheme ABP and the €100bn healthcare pension fund PFZW.

Last January, the private equity house was acquired by The Carlyle Group and AlpInvest's management, but APG and PGGM signed substantial mandates to be committed during the next five years.

According to AlpInvest, both asset managers have said they would remain important investors "for the foreseeable future".

At the start of 2011, APG and PGGM committed an additional €10bn, following combined commitments of €1.9bn - for co-investment, fund investment, secondary investment and clean technology - in 2010.

The combined commitments of APG and PGGM amount to more than 95% of the committed capital of AlpInvest, which is also investing for "fewer than five other clients", its spokesman said.

In 2010, the private equity investor's commitments were €40bn.

With cumulative commitments of €58bn, AlpInvest said it is well funded in all investment activities up to 2015.

The company's current cumulative commitments are €37bn for funds of funds, €8bn for secondary investments, €7.8bn for co-investments, €3.5bn for mezzanine investments and more than €1.3bn for direct investments.

During the past 10 years, AlpInvest has become one of the world's largest private equity investors.

Its mandated funds are managed by 67 investment professionals in Amsterdam, London, New York and Hong Kong.

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