The vast majority of investors in private equity are seeing better performance from their direct investments in deals alongside fund managers than when they merely invest in the funds themselves, according to research from the data provider Preqin.

Co-investments outperformed private equity fund investments for 80% of the investors surveyed by Preqin, which had responses from 222 institutional investors and 320 fund managers for its Private Equity Co-Investment Outlook, which was published on November 12.