Secondaries

The secondaries market has evolved rapidly in recent years and continues to grow and diversify, providing alternative assets investors with a wide range of liquidity options.

Overview

Travers Smith's market leading and award winning secondaries practice advises sponsors, investors, lenders and other market participants on their secondary market activity with experience across all asset classes (including venture capital, private equity/growth equity, private credit, infrastructure and real estate) and across all capital structures (including equity sales, preferred equity financings, NAV-based debt financing and complex hybrids).

For all of our updates relating to secondaries please follow the Travers Smith Secondaries LinkedIn page.

70+
We advise over 70 GPs across our firm.
£92bn
In transaction value during the last c.5 years.
$4tn+
Assets managed by our clients in the private capital sector.
150+
Specialists focused on private equity, financial sponsor and M&A transactions. 30 of these dedicated specialists are partners in the business.
$5bn+
In 2022 we advised on the deployment of $5.1bn+ in commitments across more than 100 primary, co-investment and fund-of-one transactions.
500+
M&A transactions acted on since 2016.

Selected experience includes:

  • Advising Hermes GPE on the GP-led liquidity solution offered to BT Pension Scheme for ~ 55% of an SMA consisting of 90 lower/mid-market private equity funds and co-investments with a reference date net asset value of ~ USD 1.2bn. The transaction, which was underwritten by CPP Investments and included a significant syndication element, was structured as a strip sale into a continuation fund and is a complex hybrid between a GP-led secondary continuation fund structure and a LP-led secondary sale.
  • Advising a leading UK private equity fund manager on a ~$300 million GP-led secondary underwritten by HarbourVest Partners.
  • Advising Hermes GPE on £bns worth of secondary market transactions, including various continuation funds backed by Ardian, CPPIB and HarbourVest Partners.
  • Investec Bank plc on subscription, hybrid, NAV, secondaries, GP support and management fee facilities in excess of £10 billion made available to funds and general partners across private equity, credit, private equity real estate, infrastructure and secondaries asset classes.
  • Advising a large European limited partner on the structured secondary financing of a ~£1.5bn portfolio.
  • Advising Medicxi Ventures, the leading life sciences investment firm, on a ground-breaking ~ €200 million GP-led secondary transaction, which was underwritten by Pantheon and LGT Private Equity and which was unprecedented in the biotechnology industry.
  • Advising Abris Capital Partners on a GP-led secondary backed by Glendower Capital and Idinvest.
  • Advising Kibo Ventures, a leading Spanish venture capital manager, on a GP-led secondary underwritten by HarbourVest Partners.
  • A club of five international banks on a ~€1.5 billion subscription facility for a large international secondaries fund.
  • Private equity, private equity real estate and secondaries managers such as Equistone, Benson Elliot and Hermes GPE on subscription and co-invest facilities for various of their fund vehicles.

Talking. Secondaries. series

Meet the team

Read Phil Bartram Profile
Phil Bartram
Read Victoria Bramall Profile
Victoria Bramall
Read Emily Clark Profile
Emily Clark
Read Jeremy Elmore Profile
Jeremy Elmore
Read Will Normand Profile
Will Normand
Read Aaron Stocks Profile
Aaron Stocks
The Travers Smith funds practice has the strongest team I know for fund formation, fundraising and secondaries work.
The Legal 500
The team is notable for its overall excellence. They are well co-ordinated and effective in achieving the objective. They stand out for their swift responsiveness, clear explanations and creative solutions.
Chambers and Partners
Very strong technical capability; excellent service level; strong commercial understanding to complement legal knowledge.
The Legal 500

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