Publications
& Policy

This member guide, developed by the Professional Standards Committee, outlines key focus areas identified by the FCA for investment managers. As these topics are principles-based and broadly applicable across all Invest Europe members, we encourage you to review the guide carefully in the context of your own firm's practices.

The EIF launched a new format within its long-running Equity Surveys series. The VC/PE Barometer Survey will now track the market sentiment on quarterly basis. By gauging fund managers’ perspectives across key indicators – including fundraising, exits, valuations, access to external finance, new investments, and deal flow – the survey offers a comprehensive view of current market dynamics and forward-looking expectations. Each edition also features an in-depth focus topic. This edition (2025/1) includes an overview of the current market sentiment; and examines in further depth the perceived impact of the new US administration policies on the European VC/PE landscape.

Analysis of the valuations of European mid-market private equity transactions for the second quarter of 2024.

PE assets are traded at discounts, PEs are more rational than public equities.

"Some would say that private equity, with its smaller companies and higher gearing, should be more sensitive to swings in the public markets, and thus GPs are reporting inflated valuations for their portfolios. We decided to look at the data to see whether they support this instinct about private equity valuations."

"The Mid-market Argos Index tracks the valuation of unlisted eurozone SMEs."

The Mid-Market Eurozone Index: The Argos Mid-Market Index measures the evolution of euro zone private Mid-Market company valuations. Carried out by Epsilon Research for Argos Wityu and published every three months, it reflects median EV/EBITDA multiples, on a six-month rolling basis, of Mid-Market M&A transactions in the euro zone.

Since 2007, the “fair value” (also referred to as the “fair market value”) rule applies to the valuation of assets held by institutional investors. This is the direct result of the application of the US GAAP FAS 157 (now ASC 820) and the IFRS 13, which converged in 2011 with the definition of fair value as the price that would be received by a seller for an asset in an orderly transaction between willing market participants at the measurement date. These accounting rules explicitly required institutional investors to take market prices and conditions into account when valuing all their assets. Private equity fund managers themselves had, therefore, to implement these rules to report to their investors accordingly.