Six continuation vehicles crossed this letter this week, $5.2 billion between them, and each found a different buyer. A state pension wrote a check directly, a lender hired a buyer of its borrowers' equity, and 17 investors put $307 million into a Certares vehicle no outlet has reported. The sellers were told to expect 7 to 8% from the 2019 to 2021 funds. My read is that the bid widens because the funds behind it will make less.

Since Friday

• Certares has raised $307 million from 17 investors for two vehicles named Guardian Alarm CV, filed on Friday with William Blair placing them, and no outlet has covered it.
• Klar Partners has launched a continuation vehicle for Nimlas, the Nordic installation group it bought in March 2021, Secondaries Investor reported on Friday. EMK's process in the same trade was reported a week earlier.
• Washington's state board approved commitments to Clayton Dubilier & Rice XIII and GTCR XV on Thursday, $950 million in all according to Pensions & Investments' headline.
• Investors are trying to recover a record $349 billion from funds more than ten years old, Private Equity Wire reported on Friday from PitchBook data.
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Every vehicle this week found a different buyer

The buyers of this week's vehicles were not the specialist funds, or not only them. Virginia's pension put $43.2 million straight into Lime Rock's $340 million vehicle three days before it closed, and $75 million into NorthSands, the three-year-old firm behind Kelso. Golub Capital, meanwhile, named Matt Shafer to run the $1 billion it set aside for equity in its borrowers' vehicles. So a lender now sits on the buy side too. Pathway and TIFF each filed a secondaries fund on Tuesday, and a former hospital-system allocator opened Gordian the same day. Bain, for its part, has six buyers on ITP Aero, from BCI to Carlyle. A sponsor with a good company can therefore choose its buyer. Certares' filing says the same without a press release: 17 investors, $307 million, first money on 4 September.

Chart of the week

Source: Secondaries Investor, Mergermarket, Amulet Capital, Peterson Partners, Lime Rock Resources, SEC Form D filings of 11 and 18 September 2026.

The vehicles refinanced the companies as much as they bought out the funds. Paceline said on Tuesday that its $50 million preferred in Kelso Industries was redeemed in full at the closing of Peterson's vehicle. At ITP Aero, Bain took a dividend out of $1.55 billion of term loans in November. It is now asking six buyers for $2.5 billion against a purchase price of €1.8 billion. Amulet, in turn, moved US Fertility into a second vehicle ten months after L Catterton paid for 42.5% of it.

Each sponsor did it for the same reason. A buy-and-build runs out of fund money before it runs out of targets, so the sponsor fills the gap with preferred equity or a loan. The new vehicle brings cheaper capital that repays it, so the buyer is pricing a whole capital structure whether or not the release says so. CD&R's own book for Washington's board puts continuation vehicles at 7% of $56 billion of realized proceeds from Funds VIII to XII, level with sales to other sponsors.

Source: CD&R, presentation to the Washington State Investment Board's Private Markets Committee, 3 September 2026, p.13.

The investors on the other side were told to expect less from the funds they hold. Five senior executives told the Financial Times, relayed on Monday, that two-thirds to 90% of the 2019 to 2021 funds will miss their targets. One expects net returns of 7% to 8%, yet Roger Vincent of Summation Capital said in the same piece that investors "won't accept a discount to current marks". Meketa's three portfolios for Hawaii all cut private equity from 19% to 16% or 17% of the fund. A buyer paying 89 cents and underwriting to 17% cannot get there on a fund that compounds at 8%, so either the mark comes down or the bid does. For the LP holding a 2020 fund, the decision this autumn is between today's discount and an 8% outcome held to the end. PitchBook's count of the money already waiting is $349 billion in funds older than ten years, a record.

Five things that mattered

• The Financial Times reported that most 2019 to 2021 buyout funds will miss their targets, one executive expecting 7% to 8% net (Monday).
• Amulet moved US Fertility into a second continuation vehicle with StepStone as sole lead, and Golub hired Matt Shafer to buy equity in its borrowers' vehicles (Tuesday).
• Paceline's $50 million preferred in Kelso was redeemed at the close of Peterson's $510 million vehicle, and Pathway, TIFF and Gordian set up as buyers in one day (Wednesday).
• Six buyers lined up on Bain's $2.5 billion vehicle for ITP Aero, and Morgan Stanley hired Baird's two secondaries co-heads (Thursday).
• ECP filed its third continuation fund, for Next Wave, with about $900 million in view, and Virginia's packet showed $43.2 million put directly into Lime Rock's vehicle (Friday).
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Seen before the press, the week's finds

The find of the week came on Friday from 350 Madison Avenue. Guardian Alarm CV and Guardian Alarm CV 2 filed from the address of Certares, the New York investor in travel, hospitality and business services. Certares bought the Michigan security company in March 2017 with Vanwall Holdings. The two vehicles have raised $187.4 million from ten investors and $119.9 million from seven since 4 September, both of open-ended size. Nine years into the hold, with William Blair placing them, they are most probably a single-asset continuation vehicle. They could also be a co-investment pool for an acquisition, and nothing published says which.

One older find from the ten-day backfill had no press behind it either. Goldman's Vintage team registered four Cayman entities named Vintage Real Estate Partners IV on 11 September. So the successor to the $3.4 billion third fund of June 2024, which Goldman called the largest dedicated real estate secondaries fund ever raised, is being set up.

On the radar

• Tuesday 22 September, London. Informa's Global Secondaries Summit takes single-asset GP-leds at 10:10, multi-asset at 14:20 and credit secondaries at 16:15. The single-asset panel has ITP Aero, Next Wave and Nimlas in market to discuss.
• Tuesday 22 to Thursday 24 September, West Sacramento. The CalSTRS board meets, with the private equity consultant's semi-annual report in open session on Wednesday and an investment decision in closed session.
• From now to Thursday 15 October. Corporate pension plans file their Form 5500 for 2025, with every fund interest listed at cost and value. A fund that left a schedule with value still in it is a sale, and this letter reads the large plans as they land.
• Tuesday 29 September, New York. ILPA's Continuation Vehicles for the Limited Partner course meets the day before quarter-end. Wednesday 30 September is the reference date for every process a seller wants priced on third-quarter marks.
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