Plot Thickens Over Stanford Secondary Sale
Two sources confirmed to peHUB today that Cogent Partners has been hired by Stanford’s endowment to sell some portion of its private equity portfolio. Beyond that, there are still lots of questions about exactly what Stanford hopes to get out of the deal. The news was first reported by LBO Wire. A managing director for Cogent declined to comment. One interested purchaser with around $1 billion under management told me he contacted Cogent and was told the deal was “so big I shouldn’t even bother thinking about it.” That investor, who has purchased assets from Cogent before, said Cogent was tight-lipped about the particulars of the assets and got the impression that Cogent had a list of very large investors it was already pitching the deal to. Another source with billions under management and who is familiar with the proposed sale said the deal is different than a traditional secondary sale because Stanford wants to work out some kind of “joint venture” arrangement in which it will continue to hold a stake in its private equity assets. For example, if it has a commitment that is 50% called down, it would rather sell 25% instead of the full 50%, the source says.
