Vision to focus on GPs with preferred equity push

Vision Capital‘s move into private credit will include a focus on providing preferred equity to general partners who may have limited follow-on capital, according to its founder and chief executive.

The London-based direct secondaries pioneer, which announced its principal finance strategy in July, aims to provide financing for funds and portfolio companies through debt and preferred equity, Julian Mash told Secondaries Investor. The strategy will target deals between €25 million and €500 million.

“We have a serious network of GPs, we understand companies and how you evaluate their potential,” Mash said. “We understand the relationship between funds and companies. This is our home space.”

Vision is the latest firm to move into a growing part of the secondaries market. Last year, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s head of secondaries and co-investments, Yann Robard, left to launch Whitehorse Liquidity Partners, which focuses on preferred equity, and the strategy’s pioneer, 17Capital, is back in market seeking north of €500 million for its fourth dedicated fund.

Asked whether fund restructurings have eaten up potential dealflow for direct secondaries, Mash said: “Fund restructurings are one of a number of evolutions in the secondaries market as it has grown, matured and specialised. It is hard to say in this more complex landscape whether any one development has replaced another.”

While the firm intends to raise capital for the strategy, this will not be dominated by a single fund, Mash said, adding that Vision wants to take a customised approach.

Vision has around $2 billion in assets under management and has raised 15 investment partnerships since 2002, according to its website.