PEI Features Akin Gump Lawyers in Q&A on GP-Led Secondaries Market

Private Equity International has published a Q&A, “Behind the uptake of continuation vehicles,” with Akin Gump investment management partners Mary Lavelle, Daniel Quinn and Fadi Samman. The Q&A was subsequently republished in PEI's affiliate title Secondaries Investor

The article focuses on the GP-led secondaries market, which, the authors claim, “continues to benefit from innovation and shows no signs of slowing down.”

Among the highlights:

• Innovations in GP-led secondaries, currently: “The wider market has realised how much innovative thinking has been done by the secondaries market and that has spurred adoption. We are in the early to mid-adoption phase as that innovation spreads throughout the market. Secondaries technology is no longer seen as unusual, instead it is developing into one of the primary exit strategies for many managers.” (Quinn)
• Challenges facing market participants: “There is the fundamental concern of whether investor demand will con­tinue to match supply. The amount of dry powder in the secondaries market is estimated to be less than two years’ worth of supply, in a market that is throwing out more and more dealflow.” (Lavelle)
• LP appetite for GP-led secondaries: “Large institutional LPs will continue to have a growing interest in continuation vehicles because standing behind them are GPs saying that they like an asset and do not want to sell it. LPs may have a similar mindset and so if the deal involves a good manager and LPs have capital, they will continue to view these deals favourably and will at least want an option to participate in them.” (Samman)

To read the full interview, click here.