
Ardian Raises Record $30 Billion for World’s Largest-Ever Secondaries Platform
– Ardian raised $30 billion for its ninth-generation secondaries platform, making it the largest secondaries fundraise globally.
– The fundraise represents a significant increase from the $19 billion raised in 2020 for Ardian’s eighth-generation platform.
– This achievement solidifies Ardian’s position as a leader in the secondaries market, with $97 billion in Secondaries & Primaries Assets Under Management.
– The oversubscribed fundraise, closed at its hard cap, reflects growing LP interest in secondaries due to market volatility and liquidity needs, with record deal volumes in 2024.
– The fundraise attracted 465 investors from 44 countries, including pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, and high-net-worth individuals.
– Private wealth clients accounted for 22 percent of equity raised, up from 11 percent in the previous platform.
– Mark Benedetti, Executive President & Co-Head of Secondaries: “We are actively capitalizing on a generational buying opportunity for secondaries. With the continued exponential growth in private markets, investors increasingly look to secondary buyers to help them actively manage their private equity portfolios.”
– Vladimir Colas, Executive Vice-President & Co-Head of Secondaries: “We expect 2025 to be an even stronger year of activity, and we are deeply thankful to our investors, who have ensured that we are well capitalized for this market opportunity.”
– The platform follows Ardian’s strategy of acquiring stakes in top-tier private equity assets and providing liquidity solutions to leading institutional investors and general partners.
– Ardian has over 25 years of market expertise, with a team of 100 investment professionals across 14 offices and a leadership team that has worked together for nearly two decades.
– The firm’s database covers 1,600 funds from over 650 general partners, with 5.4 million real-time data points on 10,000 companies, enabling AI-driven, evidence-based investment decisions.
– Ardian recently completed two secondary deals exceeding $3 billion each.
– The firm is capitalizing on the exponential growth of private markets and the increasing need for secondary market solutions due to overallocation and market volatility.
– The ninth fund is already 50 percent deployed with an average deal size of $2 billion for LP portfolios.
– Ardian expects continued growth and increased secondaries activity in 2025.