Princeton University’s endowment, known for its aggressive bets on private equity, is facing the “worst ever environment” for the asset class as a slump in dealmaking and public listings weighs on returns, according to its outgoing chief investment officer.

“Until the last few weeks, I have seen very little liquidity coming out of the private equity and venture capital space,” said Andrew Golden in an interview with the Financial Times.

“We have seen some potential thawing more recently, but we can’t be sure whether or not that’s really a start of a new trend or if that’s just a blip.” Signs of improving liquidity “can sometimes just be a head fake”, he said, “that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily going to continue.”