Strategic Partners

Sometimes an investor needs cash before a fund has run its course, and someone else is willing to take the position. That is the secondaries market, and it is where this area begins.

It is wider than that, though. Existing investors, business owners and fund managers sometimes need a different kind of capital: to release money tied up in a private holding, to recapitalise a balance sheet, or to fund a deal that doesn’t fit a standard loan or a standard equity round. Our research covers private-market interests, secondary positions, structured transactions and recapitalisations, wherever capital can give someone liquidity or solve a financing problem that is hard to solve in the usual way.

Sometimes an investor needs cash before a fund has run its course, and someone else is willing to take the position. That is the secondaries market, and it is where this area begins.

These deals are harder to judge than public markets, because the value underneath is rarely on view. There is no live price to check against. So we start with the assets themselves: their quality, how the transaction is structured, what a fair valuation is, how long the money will be tied up, and how value actually gets realised at the end. We’ve also studied how stakes are priced, and where a headline discount doesn’t reflect what the underlying assets are worth.

Complexity puts many investors off, and we think that is where the opportunity sits for those willing to do the work.

Status: market structure and valuation research finished. Preparing to launch.