The truth is that private equity is a huge global industry, which exhibits significant variations across geographical regions and types of investor. For example, banks have historically been the largest investors in private equity in Europe, whereas in the US it has been pensions funds, and, in Asia, corporations.

Unsurprisingly, these different investors have different motivations both for investing in private equity and for wanting to sell (parts of) their portfolios early.

A few of Coller Capital’s well-known transactions should serve to illustrate this point:

	NatWest’s portfolio was sold after its takeover by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
	Shell’s US pension fund sold assets because of a change in investment strategy.
	Abbey, the UK’s sixth largest bank, sold its $900 million portfolio in order to enhance its focus on retail banking.
	And Royal Dutch Shell and Coller Capital established a $1 billion JV in order to develop a portfolio of 34 technology investments.