Partners group launches $12 bn private equity secondary strategy fund

Partners group funds: Partners Group, a Swiss investment company, has announced the launch of a new private equity secondary strategy fund worth up to $12 billion. This move reflects the company's confidence in the growing deal flows in the secondaries space, according to Kevin Lu, the firm's partner and chairman of Asia.

The private equity secondaries market allows investors in private equity funds and private companies to make early exits to free their capital. This market has gained popularity in recent years, with increasing deal flows driving Partners Group to launch its eighth private equity secondary strategy fund.

Lu revealed this development during the Milken Institute's Global Investors' Symposium in Hong Kong, stating that the new fund will be larger than the previous one, which raised $3.2 billion in 2020.

Partners Group, founded in 1996, manages $147 billion in assets globally across various sectors, including private equity, real estate, infrastructure, credit, and secondaries. The firm is set to expand its presence in Asia Pacific by opening an office in Hong Kong.

The growing interest in secondaries markets is driven by the slower realisation in private equity and rising capital costs. Lu noted that about 20 per cent of the nearly $150 billion Partners Group manages in private markets has been deployed to secondaries transactions.

Data from Preqin shows a significant increase in capital raised through secondaries funds globally, with $23.2 billion raised via 39 funds in 2023, up from $15.2 billion raised via 30 funds in 2022.

(with Reuters inputs)