LPEQ, a group of European listed private equity companies, has expanded its membership roll further with UK-quoted LMS Capital, a further example of how this asset class is building its investment profile, the group said.

It is the third private equity group to have joined LPEQ this year, taking the total membership to 19.

LMS Capital targets development capital and growth buyouts, focusing on its specialist sectors of energy services, applied technology, and media and consumer.

Listed private equity funds have become more prominent in recent years, drawing on their ability to give investors access to an asset class that is often typically closed to mass retail investors or even wealthy indviduals, although this problem has declined somewhat since the financial crisis.

An issue faced by closed-ended funds such as listed private equity vehicles is the pricing of their shares: shares can and do trade either at a premium or discount to the underlying value of a fund’s portfolio. One benefit of listed private equity funds, their managers say, is that they typically must disclose more data on their returns and performance than is often the case with unlisted vehicles.

Late last month, LPEQ reported that there had been sharp deleveraging among European listed private equity firms since the beginning of the financial crisis.