PEI Awards 2023: AlpInvest, TPG, Evercore among EMEA winners

There was a tight race for Secondaries Deal of the Year in the EMEA region, with a number of large as well as complex GP-led deals completed over the course of the year. 

EMEA dealflow represented 27 percent of the $113 billion of volume seen last year, according to Evercore data. 

Below are the winners across the four secondaries categories in the EMEA region for affiliate title Private Equity International‘s PEI Awards 2023. We congratulate the winners.

Secondaries Deal of the Year in Europe

1. TPG GP Solutions, HarbourVest Partners, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Glendower Capital, Pantheon and Lazard for Oakley Capital GP-led process
2. HarbourVest Partners, LGT Capital Partners, Eurazeo, Pantheon and Evercore for Triton GP-led process
3. AlpInvest Partners, LGT Capital Partners, StepStone Group and Lazard for Pollen Street Capital GP-led process

The race for Secondaries Deal of the Year in Europe was incredibly close, with the two top contenders receiving just over one-quarter of all votes for the category. Edging ahead, however, was Oakley Capital’s continuation fund process to move German university group IU Group from its €800 million Oakley Capital Private Equity III fund into a new €1 billion-plus continuation fund vehicle. The transaction delivered a valuation at a premium to NAV for the fund, which realised an 85 percent gross IRR.

Secondaries Firm of the Year in Europe

1. AlpInvest Partners
2. Coller Capital
3. Glendower Capital

AlpInvest Partners’ key highlights during the qualifying period include making headway with its latest flagship programme and other secondaries-related programmes, and backing some of the region’s largest deals, including Pollen Street Capital’s GP-led process and One Equity Partners’ continuation fund. The Carlyle Group secondaries unit also entered into a strategic partnership with OpenAI to implement ChatGPT Enterprise for AlpInvest’s data analytics platform.

Secondaries Law Firm of the Year in Europe

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

Kirkland & Ellis once again takes home the gong for Secondaries Law Firm of the Year in Europe, picking up just over half of all votes cast in this category. The firm’s European secondaries team advised on transactions worth $42.3 billion during the qualifying period, around half of which accounted for 22 GP-led deals for the likes of Triton Partners, Oakley Capital and GHO Capital. On the LP portfolio side, the firm advised on 14 such transactions worth $4.9 billion in total, including for CPP Investments, Lexington Partners and Access Capital.

Secondaries Adviser of the Year in Europe

1. Evercore
2. Lazard
3. PJT Partners

Evercore picks up the award for Secondaries Adviser of the Year in Europe for the fourth year running. The firm closed or signed transactions worth around $8.7 billion in 2023 across at least 10 transactions. It advised on Triton Partners’ roughly €1.6 billion multi-asset deal, and Rivean Capital’s roughly €925 million single-asset continuation fund. On the LP portfolio sale side, the firm’s highlights included advising a global asset manager on the sale of 145 assets held by more than 100 entities and representing around $675 million in volume.