Commentary

Why aren’t more fund restructurings happening in Europe?

In the latest change to the secondaries advisory landscape, UBS is staffing back up – and interestingly taking a cue from some of the market’s smaller brokers.

Slow growth in Europe is having a negative effect on real estate fund pricing, although transactions should increase in the coming years, according to Landmark managing director Paul Parker.

More primary fund managers are doing direct secondaries deals for venture-backed assets – raising questions as to what constitutes a secondaries transaction.

GP-led restructuring transactions have become more acceptable for buyers and are expected to be a growing trend over the next few months, according to Credit Suisse private fund group director Mark McDonald.

The number of secondaries GPs seeking capital from Latin American LPs has skyrocketed in the past five years.

Axiom Asia invests about 20% of its fund of funds in secondaries and co-investments but hasn’t seen any GP restructuring deals attractive enough to pursue, says head of secondaries Alex Sao-Wei Lee.

The New Mexico State Investment Council’s recent secondaries activity should encourage other LPs to take advantage of full pricing and demand.

The best secondaries market opportunities are found ‘off the beaten track’, and not through auctions, explains Hanspeter Bader, managing partner and head of private assets at Unigestion.

How Setter, Cogent and NYPPEX calculate their secondaries transaction volume figures.