Marine Cole
Facing competitors with deep pockets and inflated valuations, many traditional direct secondaries investors are steering clear of shiny ‘unicorns’.
The Louisiana Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System committed $15m to the fund.
The firms top Setter Capital’s list of the 35 most sought-after US large LBO funds. Onex Partners and Platinum Equity Capital fell off the list since last year’s rankings.
The fund, Partners Group Global Real Estate 2014, is targeting $1bn and plans to make 25% of its investments in real estate secondaries.
JB Hayes, director of private markets at wealth management firm CTC/MyCFO, has been recommending his high net worth clients curb their investments in secondaries as pricing has reached new highs.
Secondaries funds generated a pooled net IRR of 2.04 percent during the period.
With strong deal flow and high pricing expectations, demand for direct secondaries is robust, but the market also tends to reflect a disconnect to the fundamentals, according to Hans Swildens, chief executive and founder of Industry Ventures.
Discounts don’t necessarily lead to outperformance. So why are so many market participants fixated on them?
Azini Capital has completed four investments out of that fund, including its most recent one in end user computing risk management company ClusterSeven.
The move happens as Coller Capital continues to raise its Coller International Partners VII, targeting $5.5bn.