Private debt fund stakes: Goldman’s heightened interest

Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s next strategy launch could be in credit secondaries, as the sub-strategy continues to receive attention from buyside firms globally.

In an interview with affiliate title Secondaries Investor, Julian Salisbury, chief investment officer of wealth and asset management at the New York-based bank, says a credit secondaries fund is “something we’re working on”.

“We have a traditional private equity fund; we have a real estate secondaries fund; we have an infrastructure secondaries fund; we’re a primary participant in credit funds through our AIMS business. It’s a natural extension [to] look at credit secondaries,” he says.

While the total addressable market for credit secondaries is likely smaller than that of private equity, secondaries trading in private debt will grow, he adds. “Credit secondaries was practically zero a year or two ago. I suspect it will grow meaningfully as an asset class.”

Credit secondaries has been a developing area over the past year. Ares Management and Mubadala Investment Company recently disclosed a tie-up involving a roughly $1 billion pool of capital for a joint venture focusing on both LP stake portfolios of credit funds and GP-led processes.

Apollo Global Management committed more than $1 billion into equity and credit secondaries over the six months up to when it reported its full-year earnings in February, while Tikehau Capital in February raised a $300 million collateralised fund obligation backed by cashflows from commitments to its direct lending and private debt secondaries strategies.

Last year, Coller Capital and Pantheon both raised credit secondaries funds, with the former collecting $1.4 billion for Coller Credit Opportunities I and the latter closing on a pair of credit secondaries vehicles.

Credit secondaries deal volume has grown in recent years, accounting for 4 percent, or around $4.4 billion, of total secondaries volume last year, according to data from Greenhill. Five years prior, when the adviser published its volume report for 2017, it did not include deal volume data for private credit funds.

Pricing for credit fund stakes was above average for all asset classes last year, with interests trading at 83 percent of net asset value, compared with 81 percent of NAV for all strategies, according to Greenhill data. By comparison, buyout funds traded at an average 84 percent of NAV.

Key developments in credit secondaries

Aug 2022

Apollo Global Management launches secondaries solutions business, S3, with a cornerstone commitment from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. JPMorgan Asset Management appoints New York-based Andrew Carter, a former Tikehau Capital executive, as head of private credit secondaries.

Jan 2023

AllianzGI hits €250 million first close for its Allianz Private Debt Secondaries Fund four months after launch.

Feb

Advisory firm Setter Capital reports an increase in debt fund secondaries of more than 30 percent, from $2.55 billion to $3.33 billion, between 2021 and 2022.

Mar

Ares Management formally launches a $1 billion debt secondaries business in partnership with Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund.