UK CDC Group, the government-owned fund that invests in private equity in poor countries, will on Friday announce the first decline in its portfolio value for seven years – though it has outperformed emerging markets’ stock indices over the period.
Richard Laing, chief executive, told the Financial Times that CDC had benefited from backing private equity groups that use almost no debt in their investments and typically back much smaller, faster-growing companies. This made it more immune to the credit crisis than the big western buy-out groups.
