Ropes & Gray Attorneys Discuss Secondaries in Buyouts Insider

In The News
June 3, 2024

Chair of the alternative asset opportunities group, Isabel Dische, and co-heads of the sponsor solutions group, Debra Lussier and Paul Van Houten, spoke with Buyouts Insider for their special issue on secondaries.

“LP-led dealflow is fairly strong. There are still some investors looking to rebalance their portfolios for denominator effect reasons, but we are also seeing a number of large investors using secondaries to adjust their portfolio allocations,” Isabel shared.

“The GP-led secondaries market has certainly blossomed while traditional exit activity has been slow, but I don’t think the two will necessarily be correlated going forward,” Debra said. “Sponsors now have continuation vehicles in their toolkits and have become accustomed to evaluating them alongside other exit strategies.”

“GP-led secondaries are no longer thought of as a last resort exit option if traditional routes aren’t available,” Paul said. “The sponsors that we are talking to have a balance of M&A exit plans and GP-led secondaries exit plans slated for the next 12 to 18 months.”