Secondaries Deal of the Year in the Americas

1. AlpInvest, Clearlake Capital, Evercore, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, ICG and Pantheon for single-asset process on DigiCert
2. Goldman Sachs Asset Management, ICG, PJT Partners and TPG for single-asset deal on Creative Artists Agency
3. AlpInvest, Ardian, Coller Capital, CPP Investments, Evercore, General Atlantic, HarbourVest Partners and Partners Group for multi-fund GP-led deal

The single-asset secondaries market has exploded in the past two years and Clearlake has been central to that trend. The firm did four sizeable deals during 2021, each focused on top-performing assets, in what it called the ‘Icon’ series of funds. For the fourth deal, Clearlake collected $2.5 billion to transfer digital certificate developer DigiCert out of two legacy funds into a continuation fund. ICG wrote a $1 billion cheque, which only a few years ago would have been an unthinkable sum.

Secondaries Firm of the Year in the Americas

1. Goldman Sachs Asset Management
2. Strategic Partners
3. Ardian

Goldman Sachs made light work of investing its $10.3 billion Vintage VIII secondaries fund, committing $6.6 billion across 67 transactions in the year up to the end of the third quarter. Among its deals were a $1.5 billion single-asset process on Creative Artists Agency, a C$1.1 billion ($850.7 million; €755.3 million) GP-led on a Novacap fund and a rare energy process centred on mineral and royalty interests managed by Lime Rock Partners.

Secondaries Adviser of the Year in the Americas

1. Evercore
2. M2O Private Fund Advisors
3. Lazard

What do Michael Jordan and Evercore have in common? They both have six rings. Six-time adviser of the year Evercore totalled more than $40 billion of volume in North America last year, it estimates. The firm advised on two GP-led transactions greater than $2 billion, and an additional five worth over $1 billion. On the LP side, the firm advised on four deals worth more than $1 billion, including a $2 billion LP tender with a stapled secondary solution.

Secondaries Law Firm of the Year in the Americas

1. Kirkland & Ellis
2. Ropes & Gray
3. Proskauer Rose

Continuing its winning streak in this category, Kirkland & Ellis completed $91.2 billion of secondary transactions in North America in 2021, including 21 portfolio sales, 58 sponsor liquidity solutions, 63 GP-led fund restructurings – for a total of $35 billion in transaction value – 13 preferred equity secondary investments, nine tender offers and at least 18 NAV facilities. Kirkland represented Clearlake Capital on its ‘Icon’ series, and on a fifth secondaries transaction to lift Symplr out of Clearlake’s Fund V.

Here is the full list of winners across the three geographic regions: Click an award to read more…