French private equity house Ardian closed its latest secondaries fund at its $30 billion hard cap, setting a new global fundraising record for the strategy.
ASF IX, which was oversubscribed, is 50% larger than its predecessor, ASF VIII, which was closed at $19 billion in 2020. The series invests in PE assets, predominantly in North America and Western Europe.
The latest raise brought Ardian’s secondaries and primaries AUM to $97 billion.
Ardian started raising ASF IX in 2022, riding a global wave of secondaries fundraising.
Private market growth, combined with higher interest rates and volatile public markets, has meant that more LPs are looking to rebalance their portfolios.
“Using the secondary market for liquidity and portfolio rebalancing is no longer a one-off decision but now an integral part of institutional investors’ private markets investment strategies,” said Mark Benedetti, executive president & co-head of secondaries at Ardian, in a statement.
Global secondaries fundraising broke the $100 billion mark in 2024 to reach an all-time high of $101.4 billion, doubling the $40.6 billion raised in 2022. However, fund count tracked lower from the peak of 134 funds in 2022 to 96 funds in 2024, with the higher fundraising due to larger average fund sizes.
ASF IX attracted more than 465 investors from 44 countries. Private wealth clients grew particularly, accounting for 22% of the total equity raised, compared to 11% in ASF VIII.
Some significant fundraises in secondaries last year include Lexington Capital Partner X, which was closed at $22.7 billion, and Dover Street XI, which collected $15.1 billion of capital.
As the market matures, more opportunities exist to invest in bigger deals. ASF IX is already 50% deployed with an average transaction size of $2 billion.
Featured image by PM Images/Getty Images
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