Private equity firms that decide to wind themselves up face a dilemma. Do they wait until the best time to sell their assets and risk being criticised for raking in a fee in the meantime for what many will deem to be little effort? Or do they sell relatively quickly and risk not achieving the best price?

Gresham Private Equity has faced this quandary and, one year on from its announcement that it would not raise another fund and would be selling its investments to return capital to investors, it has drawn mixed reactions.