Pengana funds surge past $4 billion mark

Pengana Capital Group has grown funds under management (FUM) to $4 billion for the first time. The fund manager said total FUM was $4 billion, a $430 million increase from a year ago when FUM stood at $3.6 billion.

Assets in Pengana’s funds had reached $3.85 billion in November but then began declining down to $3.5 billion in March before slowly building up again to $4 billion.

On a monthly basis, FUM was up from $3.72 billion in May. It earned zero performance fees in the second half of the year but earned gross performance fees of $5.9 million in the first half of the year.

Pengana benefitted from the IPO of SpaceX, which is a holding in its Pengana Private Equity Trust (PE1), during the second half of the financial year. They first invested in SpaceX in late 2020 when the company was valued at US$50 billion and has gradually increased its stake to 14 per cent.

The SpaceX listing on the Nasdaq Exchange was expected to contribute approximately US$55 million to the trust’s NAV relative to the valuation used in its 31 May 2026 calculation.

Now the IPO has taken place, PE1 is currently in a lock-up period so no share sales can be enacted yet. Pre-IPO investors are typically subject to post-IPO lock-up restrictions that help to support an orderly market.

The SpaceX shares held in PE1 will be subject to lock-up periods of differing durations, after which any sales would likely occur progressively rather than immediately.

Pengana has also listed an AI Private Opportunities Trust on the ASX, investing in private companies developing, enabling or benefiting from AI technologies, from early-stage ventures to late-stage pre-IPO businesses such as Anthropic and OpenAI. The trust will be managed by US-based global alternative asset manager GCM Grosvenor which also manages the Pengana Private Equity Trust (PE1).

Ahead of the 2 July listing, it said it had raised $267 million for the trust at the completion of fundraising.

Pengana chief executive Russel Pillemer said many compelling AI and AI-related businesses remain private during their highest growth phases. By the time these companies reach public markets, a significant portion of their return potential may already have been captured by private investors.

Investing in unlisted securities can provide earlier participation in that value creation. For investors, this means they can potentially benefit from the growth of these companies before they go public.

As the fund manager continues to grow its FUM, they are likely to maintain a unique opportunity for investors to participate in the growth of private companies.