2 minutes
November 11, 2026 8:29 pm
Highlights from Singapore on valuation, conflicts of interest and capital structure
On 6 November, Tim Whittaker, PhD, Director of the EDHEC Infrastructure & Private Assets Research Institute (EIPA), joined Professor Ludovic Phalippou of the University of Oxford in Singapore for “AI, Private Markets and Other Inconvenient Facts“.
Professor Phalippou opened with a presentation on how natural language processing and other AI techniques are being used to help LPs, followed by a panel moderated by Leow Li-Vern, Managing Director, Investments at Seviora Capital. The evening was co-hosted by the LSE Alumni Association of Singapore and EDHEC Alumni Singapore, with CFA Society Singapore as supporting partner and Linklaters as venue host and was held under the Chatham House Rules.
Source: AI, Private Markets and Other Inconvenient Facts, Singapore.
Reflecting on the discussion, Tim highlighted two themes for institutional investors.
Valuation when assets change hands
In secondary transactions, the price matters to everyone involved, and their interests do not always align. Existing investors, incoming investors and managers can each be affected differently by the same valuation. That makes it important to scrutinise not just the methodology, but who stands to gain or lose from the number it produces.
Looking beyond the underlying business
Operating performance tells only part of the story. How an asset is financed shapes the risks investors bear, so the business and its capital structure need to be assessed together. A comfortable headline leverage figure can mask how little is really available to absorb losses.
As Tim put it:
“Financial resilience depends on the resources genuinely available to absorb losses, not simply the reported gearing ratio.”
Source: AI, Private Markets and Other Inconvenient Facts, Singapore.
Three questions to ask of any private-market exposure:
- How is the investment valued when it changes hands?
- Whose interests are affected by that valuation, and are there conflicts?
- How does the capital structure change the risks borne by investors?
Source: AI, Private Markets and Other Inconvenient Facts, Singapore.
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