LP Sales

Buyers are increasingly splitting out their fund strategies as institutional investors seek specific risk/reward categories for secondaries.

Some LPs are on a three-year waiting list to formally transfer fund interests off their books – an issue that could grow as overallocation issues persist.

Recent activity suggests buyers may be purposefully baking in more headroom as macroeconomic and market conditions remain challenging, according to data from Palico.

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.