Second nature

Following months of due diligence, Coller Capital and HBOS have finally agreed on a £480m price tag for the former Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance portfolio, while across the pond Citigroup is said to be close to a sale of its $900m private equity investments to Lexington Partners. The hat-trick is completed with news that Dutch pension funds ABP and PGGM are looking to offload European private equity heavyweight AlpInvest.

A flourish in deal activity in the secondaries market had been expected ever since Lehman collapsed in 2008, and new players entered the market looking to take advantage of heavily discounted portfolios.

Several new funds were indeed raised, but substantial dealflow didn't really materialise - until this year that is. As the dust has started to settle, actual deal opportunities are beginning to emerge as institutions are finally able to evaluate their allocations with a degree of objectivity and pragmatism and, for some, private equity investments have been taken off the menu and not only because of new legislation. If the announcements of the past few weeks are anything to go by, the more substantial secondaries transactions have finally arrived.

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