Private Equity Secondaries

LP Segment: Stable Pricing Enables Action

Pension funds, insurers, and foundations continue to use programmatic sales of fund interests to generate liquidity and fine-tune portfolios. The fact that buyers and sellers are finding common ground owes much to the stable pricing of recent quarters. For high-quality buyout funds, average pricing has hovered around 90% of net asset value (NAV), a level that facilitates planned reallocations and speeds up processes.

GP Segment: Continuation Vehicles Are Now Mainstream

In manager-led transactions – especially so-called CVs, which transfer selected portfolio companies from existing funds – momentum remains strong. This structure gives existing investors the choice between liquidity and reinvestment, while allowing fund managers to continue value-creation plans for attractive companies in a controlled way. GP-led volumes reached about USD 75 billion in 2024 and increased further in the first half of 2025. CVs have thus become a distinct, competitive exit channel, not merely a substitute for subdued M&A and IPO markets. Further market growth is therefore not in doubt.

Macro Environment & Europe: Liquidity in Demand, Mid-Market in Focus

The cautious recovery in exit markets seen in 2024 continued into 2025, though overall activity remained muted. Liquidity needs are still elevated; secondaries therefore continue to play a central role in the market ecosystem. They help deliver reliable distributions until IPOs and traditional M&A sales fully normalize. At the same time, fund managers are increasingly employing a broader toolkit, such as continuation vehicles, preferred equity, and NAV-based financing, to stabilize distributions and actively manage holding periods.

Within the traditionally North America-centric secondary market, Europe has moved back into the spotlight for many investors. European portfolios proved resilient on pricing in 2025, and interest in the small and mid-market segment is rising. Many of these companies are locally rooted and service-oriented, making them less directly exposed to geopolitics and trade volatility. These structural features – combined with excellent growth prospects in their regional and cross-regional niches – support valuations and deal certainty, and align well with the profile and return-risk proposition of continuation-vehicle solutions.

Outlook 2026: High Activity, Discipline Will Decide

There are strong reasons to expect elevated market activity to continue in 2026: well-capitalized buyers, anchored price expectations, and a broad pipeline of prepared deals. The keys to success will remain selectivity, clear value-creation plans, transparent governance, and fair transaction structuring.

Golding Update: Strategy Aligned to the Environment

In summer 2025, Golding closed its second dedicated private equity secondaries fund at over EUR 510 million. Well over half of the capital is already broadly allocated across more than 20 transactions and around 100 companies with a focus on resilient, cash-generative business models in the European mid-market and selected exposures in North America. Given the attractive market environment and a well-filled pipeline, we plan to finalize portfolio construction for the current program in the coming months and are preparing the successor fund «Golding Secondaries III» to launch in the first quarter of 2026. We thus remain committed to our proven, mid-market-oriented investment strategy.

If you would like information on our successor fund «Golding Secondaries III», please contact your client relationship manager or write to us at info@goldingcapital.com.