Research & Data

Bain, BX and ABRY most sought-after stakes

The firms top Setter Capital's list of the 50 most sought-after US LBO funds. Providence, Welsh Carson and Kelso round out the 24 funds given an 'excellent' liquidity rating.

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Bain Capital, Blackstone Capital Partners and ABRY Partners top the ranks of the 50 most sought-after US buyout funds on the secondaries market, according to the latest liquidity ratings released by Toronto-based secondaries advisor Setter Capital.

“To give a sense of how strong the pricing is, the average top price received for these managers’ recent vintage funds is approximately 103 percent of September 30, 2013 NAV,” said Setter founder Peter McGrath.

“More and more primary investors are starting to consider how liquid a potential investment is,” he added. “If a fund is more obscure, not as sought after, this potentially increases liquidity risk. Such that, if you later choose to sell, you may have to wait weeks or months for bids and those bids may be few and far between. This ultimately would diminish negotiating power.”

The firm’s ‘liquidity rating’ is based on various factors including the number of likely prime buyers as well as a fund’s popularity/number of followers on SecondaryLink.com, Setter’s online platform for market participants to track 7,000-plus funds and share due diligence. Setter itself then subjectively gives each fund a rating based in part on the seriousness, capacity and number of interested buyers for a fund and the ease of transfer.

Of its top-50 US buyout funds list, Setter rated 24 funds as ‘excellent’, 15 ‘very good’ and 11 ‘good’.

The funds rated ‘excellent’ were from the following GP fund families: 

  • Bain Capital
  • Blackstone Capital Partners
  • ABRY
  • Berkshire Partners
  • Advent International
  • TPG
  • KKR
  • Clayton Dubilier & Rice
  • Carlyle Partners
  • Hellman & Friedman
  • Silver Lake Partners
  • Apollo
  • Madison Dearborn
  • Sun Capital
  • New Mountain Capital
  • Thomas H Lee Partners
  • TA Associates
  • Warburg Pincus Private Equity
  • HIG Capital
  • Green Equity Investors
  • Providence Equity Partners
  • Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe
  • Kelso & Company

To view the full ranking, click here: 50 Most Sought after US LBO funds on the Secondary Market