Secondaries Investor’s Second Thoughts podcast focuses exclusively on private markets’ burgeoning secondaries market, which is offering liquidity to its underlying illiquid asset classes. Hear analysis from Secondaries Investor’s global team of journalists and interviews with the market’s most influ
This episode is sponsored by LGT Capital Partners, Dawson Partners and Pomona Capital Record volumes and growing liquidity pressures are pushing limited partners into the market as secondaries become a core portfolio management tool rather than a last resort. What was once viewed as a reactive measure has become a core tool for managing private equity exposure with repeat sellers now a defining feature of the landscape. Asset-class expansion is also encouraging more activity. In this episode, Secondaries Investor editor Madeleine Farman is joined by Dawson Partners’ Yann Robard, LGT Capital…
This episode is sponsored by Partners Group, Lexington Partners and Davis Polk As private wealth capital continues to flow into evergreen structures, this dry powder is having an immediate impact on secondaries volume. While estimates on just how much evergreen capital is moving into the market vary, industry participants view it as a growing force within secondaries. In this episode, Secondaries Investor’s editor Madeleine Farman is joined by Partner’s Group’s Philip Hess, Lexington Partners’ Taylor Robinson and Davis Polk’s Christopher Healey to explore the relationship between evergreen…
In a market shaped by slower exits and macro uncertainty, infrastructure secondaries is increasingly viewed as a defensive investment strategy as LPs seek stable cashflows and downside protection. Infrastructure secondaries saw approximately $9.5 billion of deployment in 2025, including around $5.5 billion across LP-led transactions, according to Evercore's 2025 Secondary Market Report. Among non-buyout strategies, only credit secondaries saw higher deployment volumes at roughly $20 billion last year. In this episode, Americas correspondent Hannah Zhang is joined by Wandy Hoh, head of…
How is market sentiment shaping secondaries fundraising and deal activity? In this episode of PEI Group’s Data Dive podcast, PEI’s senior content producer, Evie Rusman, is joined by Secondaries Investor editor Madeleine Farman and PEI head of special projects for private equity Louise Fordham to discuss the findings from the Secondaries Investor Global Market Survey 2026. The survey, conducted in partnership with Goodwin, polled LPs, GPs, secondaries buyers and the intermediary community about market trends, transaction processes, deployment issues, regulation and more. PEI’s new Data Dive…
This episode is sponsored by Dawson Partners, StepStone Group and Davis Polk Ongoing uncertainty within private markets over the past year has helped fuel interest in credit secondaries. Institutions have turned to private credit looking for relatively stable returns. Furthermore, managers and LPs are turning to the secondaries market for liquidity as they look to manage their own portfolios. “Those have dovetailed together to create this tailwind behind private credit secondaries,” Davis Polk partner Sijia Cai said on the latest edition of Secondaries Investor’s Second Thoughts podcast. “It…
Secondaries volumes to date in 2026 are ahead of what they were at the same period last year, driven by a lack of distributions, with investors taking advantage of strong prices. LPs have become even more sophisticated in the past few years. A factor that is aiding their sophistication is the rise of asset class-focused products, offering them the ability to bring portfolios to market that are met with the right cost of capital. New entrants are coming to the market in earnest. These players represented 16 percent of the $226 billion of deal volume seen last year, compared with just 7…
The European secondaries market saw a string of sizeable deals across the course of 2025, with expected growth continued both this year and beyond. European managers CapVest, Montagu, Norvestor and PAI Partners secured CV-on-CV transactions over the course of last year, with CVC, Inflexion and TDR Capital also securing sizeable CVs, to name just a few. Belgian holding company Groupe Bruxelles Lambert and APG Asset Management also scored large LP-led portfolio deals. In this episode, editor Madeleine Farman is joined by Gabriel Möllerberg, managing director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management,…
This episode is sponsored by Lexington Partners, LGT Capital Partners and Davis Polk In 2024, GP-led deals hit a record of $71 billion in transaction volume, accounting for 44 percent of the total secondaries market volume of $160 billion, according to Evercore’s FY 2024 Secondary Market Review. This is significant and marks the increasing popularity of continuation vehicles as an exit route. In this episode, Secondaries Investor senior editor Adam Le is joined by Lexington Partners’ Jeffrey Bloom, LGT Capital Partners’ Brooke Zhou and Davis Polk’s Leor Landa. The trio explore how GP-led…
GP stake secondaries transactions are steadily gaining traction as investors seek exposure to leading private equity firms. Though still in their early stages, these deals are often described as offering some of the most attractive risk-return profiles in today’s volatile market. In this episode, Jon Costello, founder of Devon Park Advisors, and Christopher Zook, founder and chief investment officer of CAZ Investments, join Americas correspondent Hannah Zhang in a discussion on the forces driving the rise of GP stake secondaries. With approximately $10 billion in assets, CAZ Investments has…
This episode is sponsored by Lexington Partners, Proskauer and StepStone Group The secondaries market is benefitting from private markets' push into the private wealth space, with managers either launching secondaries-focused vehicles or secondaries making up a meaningful component of many evergreen funds. Evergreen funds raised $16 billion in the first half of 2025 alone, 60 percent of which is dedicated to secondaries capital, according to estimates from Campbell Lutyens included in its H1 Secondary Market Overview Report. In this episode, editor Madeleine Farman is joined by Lexington…
This episode first appeared on The Infrastructure Investor Podcast In this special crossover episode from our affiliate title, Infrastructure Investor editor-in-chief Bruno Alves sits down with Madeleine Farman, editor of Secondaries Investor, as well as Infrastructure Investor Americas editor Zak Bentley, to talk about the infrastructure secondaries market. The discussion tracks the evolution of the burgeoning infrastructure secondaries market, the asset class’s best-in-class pricing compared to other private asset classes, how LP-led deals rule by volume but GP-led transactions end up…
This episode is sponsored by Pomona Capital and Proskauer While the Trump administration's tariff announcements and the subsequent unfurling of uncertainty globally does create some headaches, it also creates a tailwind for the LP-led secondaries market. "What the market has trouble adjusting to is uncertainty. And what happens in times of uncertainty, like the times we're dealing in now, is that [M&A and IPO] transactions tend to pull away," Michael Granoff, founder and chief executive of Pomona Capital, said in the latest edition of Secondaries Investor's Second Thoughts podcast. "That…
As volatility pushes real estate investors to look for liquidity, secondaries can provide some attractive solutions. Now, StepStone Group has a record-setting fund in its arsenal to seize the opportunities. StepStone now manages the largest dedicated real estate secondaries vehicle raised to date having closed StepStone Real Estate Partners V on $3.77 billion in commitments last month. An additional $730 million from separately managed accounts brings the total haul to $4.5 billion. In this episode, Jeffrey Giller, head of real estate at StepStone, speaks to reporter Silas Sloan on how the…
Private credit secondaries has the potential to surpass private equity in deal volume over the longer term as more secondaries investors pursue yield and diversification amid market volatility. Over the past year, several billion-dollar-plus deals have emerged in the credit secondaries space, including Coller Capital's recent acquisition of a $1.6 billion portfolio from American National and TPG Angelo Gordon's $1.5 billion continuation fund. Firms like Coller, Pantheon, Apollo Global Management and Ares Management have also launched dedicated credit secondaries strategies. In this episode,…
Within private markets asset classes, there is certainly further room for improvement when it comes to diversity of talent – and one secondaries professional is taking matters into his own hands. Diversity in Secondaries Initiative (DISI) is a non-profit organisation focused on creating a more collective environment within the secondaries market for people of colour. Primarily, it seeks to find more opportunities to mentor, train and ultimately fill junior-level roles in the market with students that are in undergraduate programmes. In this episode, Peter Wright – a director advising on NAV…
Delights and gripes relating to the continuation fund market were shared at PEI Group's NEXUS 2025 conference. A critical question was raised: do LPs need to take a more proactive approach to secondaries? In one of the panels, Jeremy Coller, founder of Coller Capital, encouraged LPs to do just that – proactively manage their exposure as more GPs mull CVs for assets they want to hold longer regardless of their 'limited' status. For LPs like the New York City Retirement Systems, however, the preferred status quo option when faced with a CV opportunity is to "do nothing", according to Eneasz…
This episode is sponsored by Evercore, Davis Polk and Dawson Partners The secondaries market sits at a crossroads. Never before have LPs been presented with such an array of different liquidity offerings to back. There are specialised secondaries funds focusing on healthcare, on impact investing, on real assets in Asia or on acquiring direct minority equity stakes in companies in India. There are funds focusing on writing large cheques to multi-billion-dollar single-asset continuation funds; and there are funds focusing on making late primary commitments to buyout funds that are still in…
How does your compensation this year compare with that of your peers? In this episode, Secondaries Investor editor Madeleine Farman sits down with Kylie Hart, co-founder and Partner at global executive search firm Norgay Partners. From her vantage point as an expert in private equity secondaries recruitment, Hart gives an overview of market compensation on both the buy-side and the sell-side following a record year for secondaries activity in 2024. The pair also discuss the differences in pay between secondaries and private equity strategies, the outlook for people moves following a flurry…
The secondaries market saw another record year for deal volume, with advisory reports pinning the overall figures somewhere between $152 billion and $165 billion. In this episode, Secondaries Investor editor Madeleine Farman, senior reporter Hannah Zhang and reporter Silas Sloan dig into advisory reports. They walk through key themes that emerged, including the rising impact of evergreen capital and its effects on deal activity to date, the increasing scale of GP-led deals, the increasing scale of the buyer universe, right through to predictions on LP-led and GP-led activity for the year…
Australian superannuation fund Aware Super is heading towards its private markets allocation targets after a period of build-up and growth. The fund, which manages around $110 billion on behalf of nurses and teachers, launched its first office outside of Australia in 2023, putting boots on the ground in London. Damien Webb, the superfund’s deputy chief investment officer and head of international, sat down with PEI senior editor Adam Le. In a wide-ranging interview, the pair discuss how GP-leds are complementary with the skills Aware Super has built out around co-investment, Webb’s views on…
The secondaries market is bullish that 2025 will be another record year for secondaries market activity. Regionally, North America is set to continue its dominance in dealmaking, Europe is expected to throw up interesting opportunities that offer portfolio diversification, and increasing manager sophistication could lead to more GP-led opportunities in APAC. In this episode, Secondaries Investor's Adam Le, Madeleine Farman and Silas Sloan discuss the secondaries market's volume expectations for the year ahead and delve into key topics making rounds in the market, from US president-elect…
It's common to peel back the onion on key events and trends seen across financial markets. As the secondaries market heads for what is predicted to be a record-setting year for volume, we decided to practice the phrase quite literally. Madeleine Farman, senior reporter and host of the Second Thoughts, and senior editor Adam Le are joined by Carlo Pirzio-Biroli, head of CVC Secondary Partners, and Ted Cardos, co-head of Kirkland & Ellis's European liquidity solutions team, with the group letting a basket of onions decide the talking points. Pirzio-Biroli and Cardos discuss key wins,…
The opportunity set for the tail-end secondaries market has grown from $198 billion 10 years ago to $916 billion today, according to estimates from legacy specialist Hollyport Capital. In this episode, John Carter, managing partner and chief executive of Hollyport, and Etienne Deshormes, managing partner and CEO of private markets adviser Elm Capital, join senior reporter Madeleine Farman for a discussion on the topic. The three discuss the structural drivers of the tail-end secondaries market, how to approach due diligence in this part of the market, which institutions are more likely to…
The lack of human capital has become one of the biggest challenges in the secondaries industry – a situation that could change as the sector gains appeal among young professionals. In this episode of Secondaries Investor's Second Thoughts podcast, we're joined by three young achievers who made it on the NextGen Leaders of Secondaries: Class of 2024 list, which features the most impressive secondaries professionals aged under 36. This year, we saw the highest number of submissions in the ranking’s history with almost 400 nominations. Our guests include Sijia Cai, partner at Davis Polk &…
Second Thoughts host Madeleine Farman and America's correspondent Hannah Zhang sit down to discuss the latest volume, fundraising and performance data coming through on the secondaries market and talk through the spaces to watch as activity surges towards the end of the year.
Do you work collaboratively with potential partners to help shape a deal, or do you have a set notion of what type of transaction you want to be a part of from the outset? Is EQ as important to you as IQ? How big a role does ego play in preventing deals from being consummated? In part two of our discussion with AlpInvest Partners managing director Louis Choy, PJT Partners‘ European head of private capital solutions Johanna Lottmann and law firm Stephenson Harwood partner and head of private funds Sarah de Ste Croix, we examine these questions and more. Find out what separates GP-leds 1.0…
A secondaries buyer, adviser and lawyer walk into a room. This isn't the start of a bad joke – it's the culmination of an idea Secondaries Investor had after moderating a panel at an alternatives conference with AlpInvest Partners managing director Louis Choy, PJT Partners' European head of private capital solutions Johanna Lottmann and law firm Stephenson Harwood partner and head of private funds Sarah de Ste Croix. Over drinks at a nearby pub, the idea was born to record a podcast providing a 360-degree view of the latest trends in the market, as seen by representatives of the three main…
While many private markets firms are working to leverage generative AI, secondaries investment firm Clipway has put the technology front and centre of its strategy. The London-headquartered firm counts secondaries veterans Ingmar Vallano, Vincent Gombault and Benoît Verbrugghe and others among its senior investment team. All worked at secondaries giant Ardian. Since its inception last year, Clipway says it has reviewed close to $54 billion of potential opportunities and has built up an exposure to close to 150 GPs, which is a combination of the firm’s primary and secondaries activities. It…
This episode first aired on September 5, 2024 The top 50 secondaries investors globally raised $473.8 billion in the five years to the end of 2023, according to this year’s SI 50. That’s a 9 percent increase on last year’s ranking, when $434.5 billion was recorded across a longer counting period of five-and-a-half years. Ardian took the top spot, raising $49.6 billion across the period, followed closely by Blackstone Strategic Partners, which raked in $49.5 billion. Lexington Partners, which holds the record for the largest secondaries fund ever raised, accumulated $36.7 billion in…
This episode first aired on September 23, 2024 and is sponsored by Kirkland & Ellis, LGT Capital Partners and TPG NewQuest The Asia-Pacific secondaries market is one of the most fascinating corners of the global secondaries landscape. This region typically never accounts for more than single-digit figures in terms of global deal volume share – yet some of the most innovative transactions have come out of the APAC market over the years. In this episode of our Decade of Secondaries Investing miniseries, we sit down with Brooke Zhou, partner at LGT Capital Partners; Michelle Cheh, partner at…
About Secondaries Investor’s Second Thoughts
Secondaries Investor’s Second Thoughts podcast focuses exclusively on private markets’ burgeoning secondaries market, which is offering liquidity to its underlying illiquid asset classes. Hear analysis from Secondaries Investor’s global team of journalists and interviews with the market’s most influ
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