Private Capital Advisory
Private Capital Advisory is the bit of the advisory world that solves a simple problem: private capital is illiquid, and someone needs it to be liquid. The market has grown from $5B in 2005 to $130B+ annually in 2024 - roughly 10% of all PE exit activity. That's the terrain. You need to know four transaction types. LP portfolio sales: a pension fund or endowment sells a book of fund interests to a secondary buyer. GP-led secondaries, principally continuation vehicles: the GP initiates, picks the best assets from an ageing fund, and offers existing LPs the choice to roll over or cash out via tender. Direct secondaries: individual portfolio company stakes. Structured secondaries: preferred equity, NAV financing, securitised notes - when someone wants liquidity without accepting a NAV discount. LP sales typically clear at 85–95% of NAV over 8–16 weeks. GP-leds often price at par or a premium because the GP is cherry-picking assets. Fees run 1–2% of transaction value. Advisors include Lazard, Evercore, Campbell Lutyens. The buyers - Ardian, Coller, HarbourVest, Blackstone Strategic Partners, Lexington - control around $200B of dry powder, which is why discounts have compressed. GP-leds now make up roughly half the market, up from ~15% a decade ago. Conflicts are real (the GP picks which assets go where), so fairness opinions and 20–30% GP co-investment are standard governance. Basel III and Solvency II keep forced sellers in the pipeline. You'll be working at the seam between illiquid assets and patient capital. That's the product.
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