Hg has raised €1 billion at the first close of Orion, a fund for other sponsors' software continuation vehicles, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Leonard Green's Sage fund leads General Atlantic's newest vehicle for a company already in a continuation fund, Secondaries Investor reported. The same day Churchill led GenNx360's $285 million Whitsons vehicle as lender and buyer. So three vehicles in two days have a buyout firm or a lender as lead buyer.

The tape

• DEAL  Anduril will let employees sell shares at $94.80, about a $90 billion valuation, in a tender capped at around $1.3 billion, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
• DEAL  Cox Capital moved its offer for Blue Owl Credit Income shares, 20% below value as read here on 6 October, to start on 23 October.
• FUND  Clipway, which closed a $6.4 billion debut fund in July, is seeking $1.5 billion for infrastructure secondaries, the Wall Street Journal reported via SecondaryLink.
• LP  Saba Capital holds 5.11% of BlackRock TCP Capital, whose $671 million of loans have been for sale since August, and may seek its liquidation.
• DATA  Anthropic told investors on Wednesday that third-quarter revenue reached $16.8 billion with an adjusted profit, CNBC reported, before its November listing.
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Hg raised €1 billion to buy software vehicles

Hg has raised €1 billion at the first close of Orion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, relayed by Private Equity Wire. Orion is Hg's first fund dedicated to GP-led secondaries. Hg is the London buyout firm that invests in software and technology-enabled services companies. Its fund Orion buys into single-asset continuation vehicles of companies in those sectors that other sponsors manage, the report says. Its target is €1.75 billion, and the first close came after about six months in the market.

The team behind Orion is nine months old. On 15 January Hg announced a GP-led secondaries team led by Dushy Sivanithy. Sivanithy had spent more than seven years at CPP Investments as head of secondaries, where he started its single-asset programme. In January Steven Batchelor, Hg's co-chief executive, also spoke of "the potential development of a dedicated fund in this space". His reason: "the secondaries market is at the early stages of an evolution towards greater specialisation".

For a sponsor with a software company to keep, the list of bidders has changed since January. The largest new fund on that list is Leonard Green's Sage Equity Investors, which closed at $3.6 billion in January, twice its target, to lead single-asset vehicles of other sponsors. Behind it, GTCR Capital Solutions targets about $1.5 billion, PitchBook reported in July. Then in September New Mountain's Atlas strategy had raised about $1.4 billion of a $2 billion target at its first investment, as read here on 30 September. Finally, Golub Equity Continuation Partners is the direct lender's strategy of more than $1 billion, run by Matt Shafer since September, as read here on 15 September. Hg itself, meanwhile, has said nothing about Orion's close. Its next steps are a final close against the €1.75 billion target and a first investment. Neither has a date in the reports, and Hg has named no company.

Five funds run by buyout firms and a lender to lead other sponsors' continuation vehicles

Size closed, raised or targeted, 2026

Source: Alternatives Watch, 26 January 2026; PitchBook, July 2026; Secondaries Investor, 29 September 2026; Private Equity Wire, 15 October 2026; Golub Capital, 14 September 2026.

Leonard Green leads General Atlantic's second Argus vehicle

Leonard Green & Partners is the lead investor in General Atlantic's newest continuation vehicle, raised for a company already held in a continuation fund, Secondaries Investor reported on Wednesday. The report does not name the company, and General Atlantic has announced nothing. Most probably that vehicle is the one for Argus Media that General Atlantic filed on 7 October, as read here on 8 October. Its filing, GA Continuity II (AM), L.P., names Evercore as placement agent and shows nothing raised yet. Also possible is a vehicle for Howden, Sanfer or Red Ventures, the three other companies of the same 2021 fund.

Leonard Green brings a fund raised for exactly this. That fund, Sage, exists to "invest in industry-leading assets of other private equity sponsors through single-asset continuation vehicles", a March release says. In March it led and fully underwrote Ares' $850 million vehicle for Convergint, the security systems integrator.

Argus Media is the London publisher of energy and commodity prices. General Atlantic bought into it in 2016, and Hg bought half of that stake in January 2020. In July 2021 General Atlantic closed its first continuation fund at more than $3 billion, as read here on 8 October. The fund took Argus, Howden Group, Sanfer and Red Ventures. Ardian and HarbourVest led it, CPP Investments and Partners Group anchored it, and Evercore advised. In January 2024 General Atlantic moved its remaining Argus stake into that fund and invested more from it, Argus's release says. The same release says that Hg sold out in full and that chief executive Adrian Binks became the majority owner. So the new vehicle would buy Argus out of a fund that has owned it for five years, from the secondary buyers of 2021.

The buyers of 2021 now choose. They are Ardian, HarbourVest, CPP Investments and Partners Group. Each can sell its Argus interest to Leonard Green's vehicle or roll into it. Neither each investor's choice, nor the size of the vehicle, nor its price against the 2021 fund's mark is in the report. Meanwhile, General Atlantic itself plans a listing in the first half of 2027 at up to $10 billion, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, relayed by Capital Brief. Its vehicle's Form D of 7 October still shows nothing raised.

Argus Media's ten years with General Atlantic

From the 2016 investment to a second continuation vehicle

Source: Business Wire, 1 July 2021; PR Newswire, 22 January 2024; SEC, 7 October 2026; Secondaries Investor, 14 October 2026; Capital Brief, 15 October 2026.

Churchill lent to Whitsons, then bought into it

GenNx360 Capital Partners has moved Whitsons Culinary Group into a single-asset continuation fund of about $285 million, the firms said on Wednesday. That fund's lead investor is Churchill Asset Management, which is also Whitsons' lender. Whitsons' owner GenNx360 is a New York private equity firm led by Ronald Blaylock. Whitsons itself, of Hauppauge on Long Island, serves meals to schools, care homes and companies. Under GenNx360, Whitsons has tripled in size, grown from seven states to 17 and made eight acquisitions, the release says.

The paperwork came first. On 8 September GenNx360 filed GenNx360 Platinum III Wholesome Fund, L.P., with Evercore as placement agent and nothing raised, as read here on 10 September. That fund closed 36 days later with about $285 million of total equity commitments, a figure that includes capital set aside for the company's growth. The release does not name the selling fund. It does say that GenNx360's fourth fund, Capital Partners IV, invested beside Churchill, and that GenNx360's partners and Whitsons' managers "reinvested significantly". So the vehicle was most probably raised to pay for the acquisitions still to come, after the eight already made, in what partner Rishi Verma calls "our second hold". Neither the roll share nor the price was given.

Churchill is Nuveen's private capital arm and a direct lender, so its money now sits on both sides of Whitsons. Nick Lawler, its head of secondaries, said: "We are thrilled to continue supporting Whitsons as both a lender and the lead investor in the continuation vehicle". Golub, another direct lender, is investing the same week beside CVC in Montagu's vehicle for a medical device maker, as read here on 14 October. Bloomberg, meanwhile, named Churchill on 9 October among the managers weighing bids for listed lenders' loan books, as read here on 12 October. Its secondaries team now owns equity in a company its credit team lends to, and the release gives the loan no size.

On the radar

• Today, 2pm, London. SDCL Efficiency Income Trust's general meeting votes on seating two directors. They are Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital, its largest holder at 28.0% on 5 October, and Richard Pavry of General Atlantic, its second at about 16%. The board backs both, who would then sit on the board that reviews a sale of the portfolio.
• Wednesday 21 October, 1pm, then Friday 23 October, 1pm. Proxies are due on Wednesday for Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust's annual meeting on Friday, where Saba Capital asks for three board seats. Glass Lewis, ISS and PIRC all recommend a vote against.
• Thursday 22 October, 9am, New York. Blackstone holds its third-quarter call, the first since it shelved Project Eclipse on 24 September. Bloomberg has since reported its $1 billion credit continuation fund, as read here on 9 October.
• Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 November, New York. SuperReturn Secondaries North America meets at Convene on Madison Avenue, with Coller, HarbourVest, Adams Street, Kline Hill and New York State Common on stage. The Secondary Brief has negotiated 15% off for its readers: book with the discount link, or use the VIP code FKR3675SECBRIEF.
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