How to make the secondary market

Ardian sets record with largest-ever platform The successful fundraise highlights the continued and growing appetite for secondaries investments among investors, as market volatility and the need for liquidity drove deal volumes to record highs.

The close of Ardian Secondary Fund IX (ASF IX) represents an historic achievement for Ardian. With a total platform of $30 billion, it is the largest secondaries fundraise globally to date – breaking the company’s previous record of $19 billion in 2020.

With the continued exponential growth in private markets, investors increasingly look to secondary buyers to help them actively manage their private equity portfolios. The combination of this rising demand for secondaries, along with the strength of Ardian’s platform, built over more than 25 years, created the conditions for this record-breaking milestone.

Advantages of scale

Ardian’s leadership in secondaries dates to the launch of its first fund, ASF I, in 1999. At $220 million, it was small by today’s standards, but already among the largest in the market at the time. Dominance at the larger end of the market enables the team to command the best deals, typically exceeding $1 billion. For ASF IX, about half of the investments deployed during the fundraising exceed $2 billion.

The scale of Ardian’s platform brings important benefits to investors, notably the ability to source and secure the best transactions with strategic sellers globally, and provide diversification across geographies, GPs, sectors and vintages.

Diversified investor base

When ASF IX launched in mid-2022, many institutional investors in North America and Western Europe felt over-allocated to private markets, while those in the Middle East and Asia were increasing allocations. However, as the fundraise progressed, renewed interest emerged globally. The team attributes this shift to market recovery, strong performance of ASF IX’s initial investments, and a perception among investors that ASF provided not only complementary exposure to an overall private market’s allocation, but also an opportunistic source of alpha in what has become a buyers’ market for secondaries. The result? A highly diversified investor base, with strong representation across all geographies.
 

One noteworthy trend observed during the cycle was the growth of private wealth clients. Historically underrepresented in private equity, these investors are now gaining access through Ardian’s platform. Secondaries is a strategy well suited to their objectives given its highly attractive returns, relatively low risk in the context of private equity, along with immediate diversification and no J-curve.

Unlocking liquidity in private assets

The successful closing of ASF IX cements Ardian’s position as the largest provider of liquidity to the private equity industry.
 

For investors in private markets, liquidity is a key consideration. Because private market investments have traditionally been structured over extended time horizons, investors typically gain liquidity only when fund managers exit investments – such as through sales to other sponsors, corporate buyers or initial public offerings.
 

However, for investors seeking liquidity earlier, the secondary market offers a solution by enabling them to exit their exposure. Ardian plays a crucial role in this process. How? By stepping into the shoes of these investors, purchasing their fund interests – typically as part of a portfolio – and assuming any remaining unfunded obligations. In so doing, Ardian provides these investors with liquidity and an expedited exit from an otherwise illiquid investment.
 

The secondary market has become central to how institutional investors manage private markets exposure.

Making the market

The context for this shift is a rapidly expanding secondary market, where growing demand for liquidity has driven record-breaking volumes. In 2024, secondary transactions reached an all-time high, with annual market volume now estimated in excess of $150 billion – and still growing. This expansion is creating unprecedented opportunities for large-scale buyers like Ardian while also allowing for even greater selectivity in acquiring the highest quality assets. At the same time, both buyers and sellers have become increasingly sophisticated and programmatic in their intentions, further fueling the market’s growth. 
 

As the secondary market expands, it is playing an increasingly important role as “a market maker in the private equity sector,” says Jan Philipp Schmitz, Executive Vice-President & Deputy Co-Head of Secondaries & Primaries. “It is a liquidity provider in every market phase.” Crucially, this liquidity allows investors to reinvest in newly launched funds, thus helping them diversify across different fund vintages. At the same time, it benefits private equity firms, providing them with an important financing partner that helps channel capital into the real economy.
 

An extensive global network
 

With an extensive global network of GPs and LPs, Ardian has established itself as a preferred partner in the secondary market, providing reliability and trust in transactions. This is reflected in the structure of Ardian’s Secondaries & Primaries team, where central coordination by the Ardian Secondary Fund Management Committee is balanced by a decentralized geographic model that empowers over 100 professionals across 13 offices worldwide to build relationships in their local markets and tailor their approach to the unique cultures in which they operate.
 

The ASF Management Committee

Ardian Secondaries & Primaries is co-led by Mark Benedetti and Vladimir Colas, with the support of Jan Philipp Schmitz and Marie-Victoire Rozé as Deputy Co-Heads, and Bertrand Chevalier, Manuel Häusler, Daryl Li and Wilfred Small as other members of the ASF Management Committee.