PEI Awards 2022: AlpInvest, PJT, Ardian among EMEA winners

The EMEA region offered up compelling examples of the secondaries market’s creativity last year, with multiple large single-asset GP-led deals.

Europe accounted for just under one-third of total secondaries market volume in 2022, still the second-largest global region after North America, according to data from Evercore.

Below are the winners across the four secondaries categories in the EMEA region for affiliate title Private Equity International‘s PEI Awards 2022. Congratulations to the winners!

Secondaries Deal of the Year in Europe

1. AlpInvest Partners, HarbourVest Partners, Pantheon Ventures, Deutsche Private Equity and PJT Partners for Deutsche’s multi-asset GP-led deal
2. ICG, Waterland Private Equity and Evercore for a single-asset GP-led deal
3. Ardian and Campbell Lutyens for a single-asset GP-led deal

Europe’s Secondaries Deal of the Year award was taken by an AlpInvest Partners-led continuation fund for two of Deutsche Private Equity’s portfolio companies. Secondaries Investor reported in September that the continuation fund was formed to house two assets out of Deutsche Private Equity‘s 2016-vintage DPE Deutschland III. HarbourVest Partners and Pantheon Ventures co-led the deal.

Secondaries Firm of the Year in Europe

1. Ardian
2. Coller Capital
3. ICG

This year’s Secondaries Firm of the Year in Europe, Ardian, made a splash by winning one of the largest known commitments to a standalone secondaries fund and commingled private markets fund, Secondaries Investor reported in November. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority committed a total of $6 billion to Ardian to manage for secondaries, comprising $4 billion to ASF IX, Ardian’s latest secondaries fund, and $2 billion for secondaries co-investments.

Secondaries Law Firm of the Year in Europe

1. Kirkland & Ellis
2. Ropes & Gray
3. Clifford Chance

Kirkland & Ellis advised on European secondaries transactions worth $34.4 billion across the 2022 qualifying period. The firm advised on seven LP portfolio sales for $3 billion in transaction value, as well as three GP liquidity investments by secondaries investors worth a total of $1.5 billion in transaction value, 23 GP-leds worth $19.1 billion, three preferred equity investments worth $1.4 billion and at least 17 NAV facilities worth $7.3 billion. Clients of the firm across the year included Equistone Partners Europe, GHO Capital Partners and Norvestor Equity.

Secondaries Adviser of the Year in Europe

1. Evercore
2. Lazard
3. Campbell Lutyens

For the third year in a row, Evercore has taken the spot as Secondaries Adviser of the Year in Europe. Its European secondaries advisory team estimated it would have closed or signed around $10.5 billion of transactions in 2022 across the eight transactions for the year to November 2022 and a further six deals expected to be signed or closed by year end. Transactions included a $2.1 billion LP portfolio sale from a North America-based pension fund, a $1.53 billion multi-asset continuation fund and a $1.3 billion single-asset continuation fund.