The 14 large portfolio sales of 2018 and who bought them – updated

At least 14 portfolios worth more than $500 million launched or traded on the secondaries market last year, accounting for around $17.2 billion of volume, according to Secondaries Investor data.

The largest was the sale of a $2.3 billion portfolio by insurer American International Group, as reported by Secondaries Investor in April. Ardian and PineBridge Investments emerged as the buyers of the portfolio, the latter being the former asset management arm of AIG that spun out in 2010.

Tied for second were three roughly $1.7 billion portfolios, respectively offloaded by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, Canadian pension fund Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and peer Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

The status of Norinchukin Bank and Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board‘s processes, which were understood to be exploring sales as of late last year, is unclear.

Advisors Evercore and Greenhill estimate that total secondaries transaction volume last year was between $72 billion and $74 billion.

According to Greenhill’s Global Secondary Market Trends & Outlook report, senior-level turnover in the investment teams of institutional investors continues to be a major driver of volumes as incoming staff use the market to rebalance their portfolios.

“Fund sponsors continue to have an increased interest in proactively accessing the secondary market as a viable liquidity tool for their underlying LPs versus historically being reactionary to LP trades,” Stephen Sloan, head of Greenhill’s secondaries advisory practice, said in a statement accompanying the report.

Pension plans, insurers, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, banks and private equity managers are represented among the sellers.

Ardian bought at least four of the 14 portfolios, with Strategic Partners, Goldman Sachs, HarbourVest Partners and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board also buyers.

Greenhill estimated that secondaries deals of more than $500 million in size accounted for 59 percent of total volume last year.

– This story has been updated to show the 14 deals accounted for at least $17.2 billion of volume.