Princess Private Equity Holding
Princess Private Equity Holding Limited ("Princess") is an investment holding company domiciled in Guernsey that invests in private market investments. These are investments that are typically made in non-public companies or assets through privately negotiated transactions. Princess aims to provide shareholders with long-term capital growth and an attractive dividend yield in the mid- to long-term. To achieve this objective, Princess pursues a relative value investment strategy, the goal of which is to systematically identify and invest in private equity and private debt investments that the Investment Adviser believes are particularly attractive at a given point in time based on its global scale, broad market overview, insight and strong deal flow. Investments include fund investments (interests in private equity funds acquired from other investors so-called secondary investments or through a commitment to a new fund, so-called primary investments), direct investments (interests in (typically unlisted) assets and operating companies (whether held directly or indirectly) and may include equity, debt or other kinds of securities) and listed private equity (interests in vehicles listed on a public stock exchange that invest in private equity transactions or funds). Princess Private Equity Holding Limited was founded on 12 May 1999 by Partners Group Holding AG and Swiss Reinsurance Company. In order to invest in private equity, in 1999 Princess issued zero coupon convertible bonds due 2010 with a re-insurance cover provided by Swiss Reinsurance Company. The USD 700,000,000 of funds raised by the issue of the convertible bonds have been invested in private equity and private debt funds. In February 2006, Swiss Reinsurance Company, exercised the Mitigation Right (a right that allows Swiss Re to mitigate the likelihood of an outstanding bond loss based on certain financial key ratios) and directed Princess not to make any further commitments. Therefore, the company proposed to its bondholders a mandatory early conversion of the convertible bonds into ordinary shares of the company (deliverable in the form of co-ownership interests in a global bearer certificate), which the bondholders agreed on 5 December 2006. Subsequently, Princess changed its organisational structure including a termination of the insurance and reinsurance arrangements and Swiss Reinsurance Company sold its shares in Princess and in the Investment Manager, which was renamed to Princess Management Limited, to Partners Group Holding AG. In addition, the Investment Guidelines have been changed to a new investment policy. The Princess shares are traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (trading symbol PEY1) since 13 December 2006 and on the London Stock Exchange (trading symbol PEY) since 1 November 2007.