LP Sales

British Airways Pensions appointed BlackRock as its outsourced CIO for around £21.5bn of its pension schemes’ assets last year.

The $649bn SWF was 'proactive in monitoring and managing' its existing portfolio last year, including via the secondaries market, according to its latest annual report.

British pensions have been dumping liquid assets to free up cash due to the gilt crisis; whether they’re currently selling private markets holdings for the same reason is another question.

The situation is an example of the challenges of completing LP portfolio sales in today’s market, with a widening gap between buyer and seller pricing expectations.

The hiring comes as several mid-market investment banks are acquiring capabilities to advise on secondaries transactions, usually focused on GP-led deals like single-asset continuation funds.

The Nice-headquartered secondaries firm is deploying its fourth fund, which closed above its hard-cap in March.

Macquarie estimates there could be $50bn-$67bn of infrastructure secondaries AUM by 2025, compared with $18.6bn last year.

When it comes to pricing, speed is of the essence for LPs looking to sell portfolios, yet is only one piece of the puzzle.

The departure of Jake Stuiver comes five months after that of Mike Custar, the founder of M2O's secondaries business.

Secondaries Investor caught up with Adrian Millan from PJT Partners to discuss a market that's becoming increasingly relevant to liquidity-squeezed LPs.