Paris-based private equity firm Ardian said it was able to purchase stakes in buyout funds in deals worth USD 4.3 billion or GBP 2.6 billion. The stakes were acquired since September last year. According to a Reuters report, the acquisitions proved that the secondary market was not experiencing any shortage of sellers.
Expectations were rife that lenders would be divesting their private equity stakes after stricter capital rules were imposed to offshoot effects of the financial crisis. This was combined with the increasing demand for liquidity among other investors in the buyout industry. As a result, a lot of private equity firms were encouraged to initiate secondary vehicles.
Ardian said it did not notice a reduction in the number of sellers. The fund even expected that in the next five years, the private equity stock that would be put up for sale would be even more than the money that would be invested in the secondary market.
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