二月份，美国私募股权基金公司德州太平洋资本（TPG Capital）的共同创始人吉姆•库尔特在柏林演讲时花了大量篇幅探讨了私募股权基金架构的未来，主要谈到了一般合伙人作为基金管理者的让步，特别是从机构有限合伙人协会（ILPA）发布的指引来看。但接着，他提出了最低回报率问题，认为作为投资者的有限合伙人事实上占尽了便宜。

    为了照顾那些不太了解私募股权基金的人们，这里有必要解释一下。所谓“最低回报率”就是一支基金承诺为投资者带来的回报率，只有在实现最低回报率后，基金管理人才能开始分享利润（即资本增值提成）。

    库尔特表示，最低回报率最初的设计是基于10年期美国国债这一普遍接受的无风险投资基准，因此，最低回报率过去往往设定在7- 8%之间，20世纪80年代末、90年代初大多数时候美国国债的收益率都处于这样的水平（当时也是私募股权基金真正开始兴起的时候）。但1998年美国国债收益率跌破了6%，而且此后再也没有回头。但另一方面，私募股权基金的最低回报率却基本保持了稳定。

    当然，也有例外。历史业绩不错的一些公司往往会给出较低的最低回报率（因为他们有资本这样做），募资困难的公司就会给出较高的最低回报率（因为他们必须这样做）。但最初的逻辑依据似乎已经丧失。

    库尔特没有说德州太平洋资本未来融资将采取这样的做法，也没有说2-3%的最低回报率将成为新的常态。但当前市场这么关注一般合伙人与有限合伙人的关系，我觉得在这个时候有必要指出的是，过去十年来并不是所有事情都向着对一般合伙人有利的方向转变……

    译者：老榆木

    During a speech in Berlin last month, TPG Capital co-founder Jim Coulter spent a lot of time discussing the future of private equity fund structures. Most of it was in relation to general partner concessions, particularly in light of the ILPA guidelines. But then he brought up the issue of hurdle rates, and suggested that limited partners actually are getting an inappropriately sweet deal.

    For the uninitiated, hurdle rates are the percentage return that a fund must generate for investors before fund managers get to begin sharing in the profits (i.e., carried interest).

    Coulter said that they were originally structured to mirror 10-year U.S. Treasuries -- the broadly-accepted baseline for riskless investment. That's why hurdles were typically put at between 7% and 8%, which is where Treasuries were priced during most of the late 1980s and early 1990s (when the PE business was really becoming institutionalized). But Treasuries fell below 6% in 1998, and haven't looked back since. Hurdle rates, on the other hand, have mostly remained stable.

    To be sure, there are exceptions. Firms with strong track records often propose lower hurdle rates (because they can), while firms with tougher fundraising slogs often propose higher hurdles rates (because they have to). But the original rationale seems to have been lost.

    Coulter did not suggest that TPG planned to take up this particular mantle for its own fundraising efforts, nor did he think 2%-3% hurdle rates would ever become the new normal. But in a time when so much attention is focused on GP/LP alignment, I felt it was worth noting that not everything over the past decade has shifted in the GP's direction…