Private-firm equity has been conspicuously profitable for T. Rowe Price New Horizons, a fund<br />that invests in smaller companies (it was not one of the funds that Morningstar said had owned Snap) and is one of the biggest investors in privately held stocks.<br />Massachusetts Financial Services, for example, has “no explicit policy against investing privately on behalf of our funds,” said<br />Daniel Flaherty, a company spokesman, “but we have generally avoided private investments due to their higher risk profile.”<br />JPMorgan Chase, another of the 10 largest asset managers, does not invest in<br />private companies, either, but a representative declined to offer reasons.<br />“We’re trying to find something we can continue to buy<br />and make a bigger portion of our funds,” said Andy Boyd, the head of global equity capital markets at Fidelity, the largest private-firm equity investor by far, with stakes totaling roughly $5 billion across several funds, according to Morningstar.<br />Ed Sweeney, a spokesman for BlackRock, said his firm was a somewhat active owner of private companies three or four years ago, especially through its Global Allocation Fund,<br />but lately managers have found valuations high, relative to those of public companies.
