GP stakes

In this podcast, two industry veterans discuss the different types of GP stake secondaries transactions, the motivations driving market participants to pursue such deals, and the outlook for this emerging segment of the secondaries market.

The firm’s Keystone strategy provides bespoke offerings to alternatives managers at the management company, fund and asset level.

While some investors are still shunning continuation vehicles amid concerns over lack of both alignment and transparency, others feel that now is a great time to consider them.

The investment firm deployed $700m in GP stake secondaries alone in 2024, including a single transaction valued at over $500m, founder and chief investment officer Christopher Zook said.

Compared with some of its peers, Apollo opted to grow its secondaries business S3 organically, formally launching the strategy in late 2022.

The Paris-headquartered firm aims to hold the final close for the fund in 2025.

The transaction has been backed by capital from long-term yield-oriented institutions and not traditional secondaries firms.

The inclusion of adjacent strategies such as GP stakes and portfolio financing in volume reports shows how what matters to secondaries market participants is evolving.

Blackstone’s move to combine its GP stakes and secondaries businesses raises questions about how players in both markets should address potential conflicts of interests.

The large minority transaction is a rare example of a GP stakes purchase via a non-dedicated fund.