Christopher Witkowsky

The $63bn public pension’s council held discussions last week about drafting a request for proposals to hire a secondaries programme manager.

The New York- and London-based firm spent about a year fundraising for a vehicle that ended up ‘substantially oversubscribed’.

The public US pension, which last reported assets valued at $16bn, decided to look for purchases on the secondaries market because ‘sellers were looking to sell high quality allocations at deep discounts’.

The direct secondaries firm, which has begun fundraising for Cipio Partners Fund VI in the US, recently purchased 10 venture investments from 3i Group.

The $50.6bn Massachusetts pension purchased the secondary stake in Denham Capital Management Commodity Partners V from Harvard.

The bank’s Alternative Investment Partners division will target buyout funds in North America and Western Europe, global venture and global special situations funds.

GS Vintage Fund V will focus on LP private equity interests and providing liquidity to LPs and GPs around the world, focusing on deals ranging in size from $1m to $1bn.

Credit Suisse has filed a lawsuit against Netherlands-based family office Plaza Group, claiming it illegally transferred hundreds of millions in LP interests 'in a brazen conspiracy'. Bankrupt Plaza has blamed Credit Suisse for encouraging it to back 'poorly performing funds'.

The private equity firm has created a site for potential sellers and buyers of its fund interests to exchange info, a move that puts Sun Capital into one of the IRS’ ‘safe harbours’ from certain US tax regulations.

Blackstone’s CEO and co-founder Stephen Schwarzman also said in an earnings call earlier last week that 'to our knowledge' no Blackstone private equity fund interest has been sold on the secondaries market.