Hello, readers!

Welcome to the site with one thing on its mind: secondaries

If you know PEI, you’ll know that we’re the only information group dedicated to alternative assets globally and have been for the past 12 years.

Today, we’re adding a new, specialist news service for those professionals focused on the secondaries market in those asset classes.

From that inaugural VCFA secondaries fund in 1984 – all of $6 million! – this market has grown to the point where advisory group Cogent estimates that $27.5 billion of secondary deals were transacted in 2013 alone. They also predict it to keep growing by 10 percent each year.

So the secondaries market today is both broad and deep. It helps LPs manage their portfolios intelligently and provide compelling investment opportunities to a varied group of buyers. Advisory firms and brokers have expanded the services they offer, many now specialising in fund restructurings and spin-outs as regulatory changes take hold. Complex restructurings are revitalizing stalled funds. Inventive financing structures are facilitating deal flow in order to meet market needs and move participants forward.

It’s an exciting time for the secondaries market, and the right time to launch a specialist news site from a group with the knowledge and the connections to get inside this often opaque segment of the alternative assets industry.

I want SecondariesInvestor.com to build on PEI’s reputation for providing alternative insight. And I want the site to reflect a dynamic market by connecting daily with the growing universe of secondaries market practitioners.

Already, we’ve got a great line-up of news, insight and analysis, starting with this week’s Q+A, a conversation with Réal Desrochers. The private equity chief for the US’ largest public pension fund tells us how CalPERS uses the secondaries market to manage its 745-fund (!) private equity portfolio.

Also make sure to check out this week’s ‘Second Opinion’ column, a walk through the growing market for infrastructure secondaries by Partners Group’s infrastructure co-head Michael Barben. It’s an excerpt from his chapter in the new edition of our best-selling secondaries book, the e-version of which you can download now.

In weeks to come we’ll also hear from UBS secondaries guru Rodney Reid about the growth of real estate secondaries; Andrew Dewar at Rockwood Private Equity on what it’s like to spin out from a bank;  Adam Street’s Jason Gull on sell-side discipline; Landmark’s Ian Charles on the latest market stats; and StepStone partner Tom Bradley on managing returns. That’s just to name a few of the items we’ve lined up from industry insiders.

We’ll also have exclusives about some market reappearances and more details about market-shaping deals.

As you can see: we really do have one thing on our mind.

Welcome to SecondariesInvestor.com.

Enjoy the site,

Brian Cantwell

PS: If you’ve got news or insight to share, drop me a line at brian.c@peimedia.com or use our snazzy form to submit suggestions, anonymous tips or even pitch potential guest commentaries and white papers.