Two decades ago, Jeremy Coller’s entrepreneurial drive helped to create one of the world’s biggest secondaries platforms. Today, Coller Capital is a bigger, more institutional firm but there are still signs of that stubborn unwillingness to follow the crowd.
Ardian has invested an eye-catching $8bn on secondaries deals in the past year – and could possibly prove that high prices won’t prevent GPs from finding value for investors.
There is a lot of opportunity to restructure dysfunctional funds in continental Europe, particularly in Germany where direct secondaries specialist Evoco sees the most promising situations, says co-founder and partner Michel Galeazzi.
Multi-family offices are more educated on the secondaries market, although single-family offices are increasingly becoming interested, says François Gamblin, chief executive officer of SecondCap.
An increasing number of private equity secondaries transactions focused on small buyout and venture capital managers has helped Adveq find value in the market, explains Nico Taverna, head of the firm’s secondaries programme.
Why aren’t more fund restructurings happening in Europe?
In the latest change to the secondaries advisory landscape, UBS is staffing back up – and interestingly taking a cue from some of the market’s smaller brokers.
Slow growth in Europe is having a negative effect on real estate fund pricing, although transactions should increase in the coming years, according to Landmark managing director Paul Parker.
More primary fund managers are doing direct secondaries deals for venture-backed assets – raising questions as to what constitutes a secondaries transaction.
GP-led restructuring transactions have become more acceptable for buyers and are expected to be a growing trend over the next few months, according to Credit Suisse private fund group director Mark McDonald.