Quantitative private equity excess returns "gone cold": Is it a return of evolution or a replay of old tricks?

According to the statistics of the private equity ranking website, less than 20% of quantitative private equity products achieved positive excess returns in August. As of September 12, quantitative private equity has significantly underperformed subjective private equity in the past month, seemingly reenacting the "face-changing" performance of quantitative strategies after focusing on small-cap stocks. Looking back at 2024, with a shift in market styles, quantitative private equity experienced two significant drawdowns, with the management scale almost halved for the whole year. In the eyes of industry insiders, learning from the lessons of 2024, quantitative private equity this year has generally reduced leverage and style exposure limits, so it is less likely to repeat the same mistakes. However, how to navigate the cycle and enhance the long-term market adaptability of strategies is still worth pondering for quantitative private equity.