Interim Results for the 6 months to 30 September 2001

• net asset value declined 10% to 192.91p (including current period revenue) compared to a decline in NASDAQ Composite of 18.6%.
• over 60% of the Company's assets held in cash and investment grade bonds pending investment.
• bond performance and currency gains have offset falls in portfolio company valuations.
• period end net asset value per share of 192.91p, together with the 4.25p dividend paid earlier this year, represents a positive return for investors on the net asset per share value of 193.73p at flotation in February 2000.
• 10 write-ups, 73 write-downs and 49 write-offs in the underlying equity portfolio.
• at period end the equity portfolio consisted of 18 public and 373 private companies. 61 of these were new to the portfolio since 31st March 2001.
• distributions from trade sales totalling $835,214 yielding a gross profit of 7.3%.

Hon. Barbara Thomas, Executive Chairman of Private Equity Investor, commented: "Venture capital managers are generally more comfortable operating in this far less competitive environment than in the heady days of 1999/2000. Most investment banks, angels and corporate investors have substantially withdrawn from venture investing leaving the cash-rich venture funds in a position to price and structure deals on much more favourable terms.

"Managers for the funds in which we are invested are confidently predicting a positive return for investors. Managers of more recent partnerships are particularly optimistic about their prospects of delivering outstanding results, as they consider that they are investing at or near the bottom of the technology venture capital cycle."

The Board has decided to pilot an exercise to include revisions of the limited partnership valuations on a quarterly basis. This should commence with Q4 numbers from the partnership reports to 31 December 2001 being reflected in the Company's net asset value announced to the market after the end of Q1 2002. On this basis, numbers in the market should always be less than four months old instead of as much as eight months old currently.