Since Labor Day we’ve spent considerable time at conferences and with investors. Nothing focuses the mind better. And what we’ve found is a disconnect between perception and reality. Take the economy. Beginning a year ago, there was a growing worry that higher rates were going to plunge the US into a recession. Anyone calling for…
After our stop in Stockholm last month to visit investor clients with our Nuveen and Arcmont colleagues (and after our scheduled meetings in Finland were postponed by a baggage handlers’ strike at Helsinki-Vantaa airport), we gathered at Copenhagen’s Hotel d’Angleterre for an event showcasing alternative strategies. The Nordics share several similarities – the “Nordic model”…
Our recent visit to Sweden was the 12th country in our 2023 global private credit tour meeting clients and prospects. The Nordic region has always been strong in terms of investor interest and commitment to alternatives. Amid higher rates, that appetite has sharpened, as our colleagues at Arcmont (and Nuveen for real estate and green…
As master of ceremonies at last week’s Greenwich Economic Forum, your correspondent had a ring-side seat at the event’s sixth annual gathering at the Delamar Hotel in Greenwich, CT. The list of speakers read like a Who’s Who of Nobel-prize winning thought-leaders in business, economics, and investments. It was hard not to be overwhelmed by…
At a recent private markets conference in Paris, Blackstone’s CEO Stephen Schwarzman said private equity “has just been too successful. Institutions have made so much money that all of a sudden they’ve exceeded their expected exposure.” As a result, cash-constrained investors are looking to the secondary market to sell some of their exposure. But has…
Last week in our special series on private equity secondaries, we discussed how GPs are leveraging newly developed liquidity in that market to manage funds and assist their LPs with their specialized investment needs. Given today’s challenged capital markets it’s also tougher to extract expected values from your best properties. Sponsors are looking inwards and…
Our head of secondaries, Nick Lawler, relates the following story: “In April 2019, I was in the middle of a road-trip from Chicago to Louisville, when I got a call from one of our relationships at a major investment bank to discuss a new deal. The sponsor, one of the nation’s largest and most respected, was…
Over the past two decades, the private equity secondaries market has quietly expanded into one of the highest growth, yet still niche, areas of alternative investments. From 2002 to 2022, global secondary market volume scaled from $2 billion to over $100 billion in transaction value – a 50x growth rate. GP-led transactions now account for…
“The majority of GPs have observed some level of interest from their investors for continuation funds.” – Private Equity International Private Fund Leaders Survey 2023. Besides the above survey, an article last month in Secondaries Investor cited Jefferies data showing 80% of LPs sought liquidity by selling into continuation vehicles. This is an extraordinary shift…
”The bond market is the most important market in the world. It is the backbone of all other markets.” – Ray Dalio, founder, Bridgewater. A recent Financial Time piece on bonds [link] reminded us of their long, proud history as well as their critical importance to the proper functioning of today’s global markets. The article…