ROYC Secondary Market Analysis

ISSUE
#01
October 23, 2023

Secondaries offer the most attractive investment opportunity since the global financial crisis

Source: Pitchbook Custom Benchmarks, As of Q1 2023

Our analysis further points to 5 key factors that will positively impact Secondaries over the coming quarters, driven by institutional investors’ need to use secondaries markets to manage their portfolios.

  • Institutional investors are being increasingly active in portfolio construction to manage risk, exposure and return profile
  • The increasing need for liquidity pushes institutional investors to sell existing private markets exposures to fund large commitments made between 2018 and 2021
  • As secondaries markets have matured, there have been an increasing suite of investment types catering to different investors (i.e. GP-led deals gaining market share from classic LP-led deals) making portfolio construction easier and the overall market more liquid
  • With stocks and bonds declining in value the denominator effect has left institutional investors overallocated to private markets, essentially forcing them to divest high-quality private markets assets. Secondaries markets are the best tool for investors to rebalance larger positions in their portfolios
  • In light of substantially reduced IPO activity, secondaries markets have become the best alternative to exit investments for private markets investors

Even with continued macroeconomic headwinds, somewhat of a “perfect storm” has been created to invest in secondaries

Our analysis notes that secondaries transaction volumes are expected to reach $500 billion between 2023 and 2026. We also conclude that secondaries investors account for approximately 70% of total secondaries investment opportunities – the current supply of investment opportunities is significantly larger than the amount of investment capital.

Source: Preqin, ROYC fund manager research, Evercore Dec'22

The demand for liquidity combined with a market of forced sellers creates an exceptional market dynamic resulting in steep discounts to NAV

We believe that not only is there an abundance of high-quality deal flow that outweighs the amount of available buyers’ capital, but also that the best secondaries managers will be well-positioned enough to cherry pick the best assets and buy these at discounted prices - ultimately generating excess returns for investors.

Source: Jeffries, January 2023, Global Secondary Market Review

Conclusions

  • Returns
    Secondaries managers have delivered the highest returns with the lowest risk across all private markets over the long- and short-term
  • Exceptional buying opportunity in the medium- to short-term
    There are substantially more sellers than buyers of high-quality, profitable private businesses in the market right now
  • The “perfect storm” is now
    We see a surplus of attractive investment opportunities that secondaries investors can acquire with steep entry discounts

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