Rod James
Rod James is a reporter with Secondaries Investor and also contributes to sister title PrivateEquityInternational.com. He is based in the London office. Prior to PEI, his roles included a stint as a freelancer covering fintech and transaction banking, CEEMEA capital markets reporter with EMEA Finance magazine, and editor of the Latin American political and economic risk team at IHS Global Insight.
An incentivised management team is crucial to ensuring ultimate success in GP-led secondaries deals.
Finding the pricing sweet spot to satisfy sponsors, buyers and LPs is tougher than ever in today’s market.
Some sponsors are still able to drive aggressive terms in GP-led deals, though perhaps not for much longer.
The $36bn pension, which counts Advent, TPG, Hg and Industry Ventures among its long-standing GP relationships, was overallocated to PE by more than 6 percentage points.
The sovereign wealth fund has lost 13 investment staff since 2017, including head of alternatives Stephen Moseley in June.
While the balance of power has yet to shift meaningfully towards LPs, those who had terms rejected in LPA negotiations may want to try again.
PE firms will not struggle en masse to raise successor funds. However, it will become clear who has a strategy and who does not.
PEI’s LP of the year in North America also triumphs in the GI 100, suggesting this relative newcomer to the industry is here to stay.
PE assets under management have grown appreciably in year-on-year terms amid performance spikes and LPs investing increasingly vast amounts.
With so many funds in market chasing ever-heightening targets, GPs cannot rely solely on their returns track record to secure LP commitments.