not me but I would imagine that an individual investor would require a substantial amount of cash in order to participate in a private equity fund. Like hedge funds private equity funds often have a minimum iinvestment amount (normally in the six figure range).
High fees and a lack of liquidity can make private equity a relatively risky investment but the returns can be substantially higher than the public equity. Investing in these funds is often characterised by a long lock-up period where you cannot withdraw your cash without incurring penalties.
Despite the drawbacks, private equty can be financially rewarding but it should not represent the majority of your investment portfolio.
I would also like to ask, is there any route for the retail investor to invest in private equity? Very few takers, would probably imply very few people actually know anything about this.
Yes, a private equity fund / house will happily take your money to invest, but as JohnBoy has already said, there is usually a substantial minumum investment amount.
Companies that are quoted on the major stock exchanges live under very strict rules about how they manage & report their finances and business. Privately held companies are less transparent.
One way of getting exposure to private equity is to to buy shares in publicly quoted private equity companies like 3i
As pointed out by people above to invest directly in a private equity fund or fund-of-funds normally requires a large committment - $10M used be standard - could be higher now.
Plus even if you had the money the really good managers would not want it - as they have enough people offering to give them money already!
I am not aware of any retail offering in Ireland for investors wishing to commit smaller amounts - think there are quite a few in the UK though