PE Fund Model

The model starts from documented fund terms: a target fund size of $500m, with LP capital at 98% and GP co-investment at 2%. It assumes a five-year investment period followed by a harvest period, with a 2% management fee on committed capital during deployment stepping down to 1.5% on invested capital net of exits thereafter.

• Carried interest is set at 20% over an 8% compound preferred return with a 100% GP catch-up, using a European whole-fund waterfall. Fund-level expenses are modelled at 0.15% of fund size annually.
• At portfolio company level, each of five vintage cohorts uses entry and exit EV/EBITDA multiples, EBITDA growth, LBO leverage, interest rate and hold period as its key drivers.

The template links assumptions to capital deployment, where annual calls are capped by uncalled commitments and management fees are calculated on the correct base period. Each vintage cohort then grows entry EBITDA, amortises LBO debt using prior-period balances to avoid circularity, and computes exit equity proceeds at its specific exit year.

• Those proceeds, net of cumulative fees and expenses, feed the waterfall. The waterfall applies return of capital first, then the compound preferred return threshold on cumulative called capital, followed by catch-up and residual 80/20 splits.
• LP distributions and closing NAV then drive performance metrics. This flow prevents revenue from exited cohorts from bleeding into later years and keeps the harvest-period fee base free of current-year self-reference.

The final performance sheet reports LP net IRR, DPI, RVPI and TVPI, alongside GP economics covering management fees and carried interest. RVPI is calculated as closing NAV divided by cumulative called capital, so it reflects unrealised positions without double-counting realised gains.

• A checks sheet verifies that total called capital does not exceed commitments, that distributions reconcile to net proceeds, that NAV stays non-negative, and that TVPI equals DPI plus RVPI in the final year. These checks are structural rather than predictive, and the template does not publish sample financial results.
• The public download is a values-only preview; it shows the intended calculations but does not contain live formulas or automatically recalculate.

Practically, the template is useful for understanding how fund-level cash flows produce the J-curve profile, how vintage cohorts with independent exit timing affect NAV and distributions, and how the European whole-fund waterfall changes when carry can be distributed. It explicitly models the interaction between LBO leverage, interest tax shield via levered NOPAT, and exit proceeds.

• Scenarios and sensitivity analysis are documented as omitted, and the model assumes no fund-level debt or subscription line. It does not cover subscription facilities, second-lien or PIK structures, or non-European waterfall variants.
• The design is limited to a mid-market buyout fund targeting a five-vintage, ten-year structure.