The secondaries market, where stakes in privately held funds are bought and sold, continued to thrive amidst uncertainties stemming from Trumpâs policies, including tariffs. Secondaries professionals reported record deals worth $162 billion last year. With large investors, particularly university endowments like those of Harvard and Yale, seeking to sell private equity stakes due to market volatility and funding pressures, demand is expected to rise. As this strategy shifts from fringe to core within private equity, it prompts deeper exploration of the firms and professionals involved in these transactions.
"I always joke there aren't any bad times for secondaries," Matthew Roche, a partner at secondaries firm StepStone told BI. "There are some really good times for secondaries, and this is one of them."
Uncertainty around Trump's tariffs has slowed already sluggish dealmaking, which is expected to lead to even more private equity investors looking to exit funds that have yet to make distributions.
The secondary market has existed almost as long as private equity itself, but it was long viewed as a fringe strategy. Nowadays, it's considered a core strategy, making up the bulk of assets for some.
It's not just tariffs. The endowments of Harvard and Yale are in the process of selling private equity stakes amid a federal crackdown on university funding.
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