It’s difficult to analyze private equity fund performance in the first few years of its life cycle because net cash flows are generally still negative – fund managers are in the process of acquiring and bolstering private companies. But a study of more than 300 US buyout funds found that there are two early indicators of whether a fund will ultimately land in the top or bottom quartile of PE fund performance: early distributions and a shallow J-curve. “Analysis of current immature funds can also be invaluable when assessing new primary investments. The ability to evaluate patterns of calls, distributions…