Learning recs for secondaries

Does anyone have any good papers, books etc. for secondaries (LP, GP-led, direct, tail-end, distressed)? I've been able to find some good papers on the vanilla LP stuff, GP-led and direct, but haven't found any on tail-end and distressed.

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It sounds like you found enough info to cover a vast part of the market. Some additional resources (all Google-able, I think):

1. An Introduction to Private Equity Secondaries - CAIS

2. A Liquidity Cushion in Troubled Times: The PE Secondaries Market - INSEAD Knowledge

3. LP Corner: An Overview of Fund Secondaries - Allen Latta

4. Navigating Secondaries: A Guide to Changing Currents - Landmark Capital / Ares (White Paper in PDF)

If you are preparing for an interview, it might be worth looking especially at the latest trends, such as single-asset secondaries and continuation funds. Interesting transactions include BC Partners continuation fund for Springer Nature (2020) and Hellman & Friedman transfer of the three remaining portfolio companies from Fund VII to its own continuation vehicle (2020 / 2021). 

Finally, you can learn (and borrow!) some clever lingo from a podcast (yes, a podcast!) - Silicon Street interview with Pantheon's head of secondaries Kevin Dunwoodie. They cover some aspects of the GP-led transactions, too.

Good luck!

 

The market has moved away from looking at tail end and distressed. That was how secondaries started (buying zombie funds on the cheap) but the market has largely proven bad GPs/funds = bad returns in most scenariosFocus on the GP leds (which for all intents and purposes are deals for tail end assets), LP stakes, and alternative solutions such as GP growth capital or structured/preferred equity solutions.

 

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