- GSAM launched the Goldman Sachs MSCI World Private Equity Return Tracker UCITS ETF (GSPE) in Europe to target “private equity-like” returns using public equities.
- It tracks MSCI’s World Private Equity Return Tracker Index, built from MSCI’s Private Capital Universe dataset to mimic private equity sector, region, and style exposures with liquid stocks.
- The approach improves liquidity, transparency, and access versus traditional private equity but cannot capture deal-selection and other non-replicable drivers, so performance gaps and tracking error are key risks.
- A similar US ETF (GTPE) uses the same index, holds about 1,500 global equities, and charges a 0.50% fee.
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The launch of GSPE represents GSAM’s effort to import innovations from private capital indexing into the European ETF and UCITS landscape. By leveraging MSCI’s recently developed Private Capital Universe dataset, the MSCI World Private Equity Return Tracker Index (World PERT Index) is constructed to capture many of the systematic return drivers observed in private equity—sector and regional tilts, growth exposures, style biases—but via investible public equities.
This structurally addresses key barriers that institutional and retail European investors face with traditional PE: illiquidity, high fees, long lockups, and opaque valuation practices. The UCITS ETF (GSPE) thus provides a liquid, transparent, and accessible vehicle aligned with regulatory norms in Europe. Its US counterpart (GTPE) has established comparable parameters: expense ratio of 0.50%, ~1,500 global equities in the portfolio, and exposure matching MSCI’s PE‐oriented factors.
But there are trade-offs. While MSCI’s research shows that sectoral and style exposures explain a substantial portion of PE’s historical outperformance (~200 bps annually out of ~450 bps over public equities), the “unreplicable” components—private deal selection, leverage, structural inefficiencies, etc.—remain excluded. Additionally, tracking via public markets introduces volatility, valuation lags, and potential divergence in return smoothing. Monitoring tracking error vs private equity benchmarks, especially net of fees, will be critical.
In the competitive landscape, several other products are pushing similar boundaries: GTPE (US), other MSCI private capital indices, and blended public‐private equity indices. Investors will compare fee levels, liquidity, transparency of holdings, and historical backtests. GSPE’s success probably hinges on its positioning relative to traditional PE funds (especially performance net fees), its ability to maintain factor exposures, and investor appetite for this kind of product in Europe.
Open questions remain: How will GSPE perform in volatile markets? What is its exposure to growth vs value, small cap vs large cap, and leverage? How significant will tracking error be vs private equity fund benchmarks? What demand will emerge—retail, institutional, or intermediary? And how will regulation and tax treatment in Europe influence its uptake?
Supporting Notes
- GSAM has unveiled a new European UCITS ETF called Goldman Sachs MSCI World Private Equity Return Tracker UCITS ETF (GSPE), which will list on Deutsche Börse initially, tracking MSCI’s World Private Equity Return Tracker Index.
- The index leverages MSCI’s Private Capital Universe dataset: ~$7.7 trillion in private equity fund assets, ~9,700 funds and ~174,000 private companies as of June 30.
- US equivalent GTPE ETF launched October 23, 2025; it seeks to correspond to the MSCI private equity return tracker index and holds ~1,500 global equities with both long and short positions.
- The expense ratio for GTPE is 0.50%; the same fee is indicated for GSAM’s promotion of its private equity return tracker ETS.
- MSCI research suggests that over the past two decades, global private equity has outperformed global public equity by ~450 basis points annually; approximately 200 basis points of that is attributable to sector and other replicable public market exposures, with only ~100 bps explained by leverage and beta.
- MSCI states that its World PERT Index is designed to capture replicable PE traits through public securities, with regional, sectoral, style exposures, while acknowledging that it cannot exactly replicate private equity performance due to unreplicable elements like deal sourcing and active operations.
- GSAM’s press release emphasizes strong European client demand for diversification across liquidity spectrum, as a motivation for launching GSPE.