“It’s a space that we continue to spend time on and have looked at from time to time.”

So said KKR co-president and co-chief operating officer Scott Nuttall on a May earnings call, answering a question posed by an analyst about whether the firm had looked at adding secondaries as a strategy.

The private equity giant, which had “nothing to report today on that front”, is one of a majority of private equity giants that are yet to add secondaries capabilities to their offerings. Data from sister publication Private Equity International below show that of the top 50 firms in the PEI 300 – the ranking of firms by capital raised over the last five years – just eight are involved in secondaries.

Of the top 10 biggest firms, only Blackstone, Carlyle Group and Neuberger Berman offer secondaries products.

Asset managers looking at buying a secondaries team have to address hurdles such as franchise risk, and those considering building a team from scratch face recruitment issues, as we outlined here. Until more firms overcome such hurdles, those with secondaries capabilities will have to contend with their current competitor set.