News & Analysis

Goldman Sachs joins private equity GP-led party

The investment bank has run what is understood to be its first GP-led secondaries process on PE assets in a CPP Investments-backed process.

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Goldman Sachs has joined the GP-led sell-side via a transaction that is understood to be the first time the investment bank has tapped the secondaries market in a manager-initiated process on private equity assets.

Entities affiliated with the New York-headquartered bank sold a strip of exposure to 26 assets into a fund that Goldman’s asset management team will continue to manage, according to details shared with Secondaries Investor. CPP Investments and Jasper Ridge Partners co-led the deal, according to the details from a spokesman for the Canadian pension.

Hamilton Lane also participated in the deal, according to a source with knowledge of the transaction.

The deal was worth around $500 million in total and included additional unfunded capital to help support follow-on investments, according to the details. Lazard advised Goldman on the process.

The size of the unfunded capital portion was undisclosed and spokespeople for CPP Investments and Jasper Ridge declined to provide further details on this point. It is understood that the assets were originally held on Goldman’s balance sheet.

Goldman is one of the most active buy-side participants in GP-led secondaries, having raised $10.3 billion for its latest Vintage Fund VIII last year, according to Secondaries Investor data. On the sell-side, Goldman has not executed on a GP-led process involving private equity assets until now, it is understood.

More than one-third of the top 50 firms in the PEI 300 ranking of biggest private equity firms by fundraising – now including Goldman – have run continuation fund processes on their assets, according to estimates by Secondaries Investor and affiliate title Private Equity International.

For CPP Investments, this latest deal follows a C$1 billion ($796 million; €696 million) strip sale and continuation fund process it backed involving BT Pension Scheme, as Secondaries Investor reported on Wednesday. That process also involved a strip sale continuation fund, in which exposure to mid-market and growth assets from a BTPS separately managed account managed by Hermes were moved into a continuation vehicle.