Evercore: deal volume hit $47bn in 2014

Evercore estimates secondaries transaction volume reached $47 billion in 2014, up from $26 billion in 2013.

The volume estimate comes from a survey of investors and is inflated to account for non-respondents.

The trading of limited partner positions represented 81 percent of total transaction volume, while direct secondaries, general partner-led transactions and other restructurings accounted for the remaining 19 percent.

According to the survey, the bulk of secondaries transactions, 70 percent, were led by secondary general partners or primary GPs with an allocation to the strategy. Pure secondary investors followed, accounting for about 28 percent of deal volume, and opportunistic primary investors closed a small portion, 2 percent, of deals.

This year, the majority of buyers expect secondaries deal volume to decline to less than $40 billion. Roughly 57 percent of buyers anticipate volume will hover between $35 billion and $40 billion and 32 percent of investors believe it will be less than $35 billion.