Pantheon has closed its eighth secondaries flagship at $6 billion, 71% above its target. Its seventh fund closed at $3.25 billion in 2023, so this one is nearly double. Meanwhile, ILPA has published the final text of its continuation vehicle guidance, with an election period of 20 business days where the June draft asked for 30. In addition, HarbourVest Global Private Equity opened a $400 million tender at 10% below net asset value, after selling fund stakes at 6% below.

The tape

• DEAL  CVC Secondary Partners bought 75% of two KKR Americas Fund XII stakes through the vehicle that bought AlpInvest's BC European stakes, a Gazette notice shows.
• FUND  Blackstone's Strategic Partners X held $12.3 billion of commitments at 30 September, up $1.3 billion in the quarter, against a $22.5 billion target.
• FUND  Vintage Investment Partners, the Tel Aviv fund of funds, raised $920 million, $340 million of it for its sixth secondaries fund, SecondaryLink says.
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Pantheon nearly doubled its flagship in one vintage

The mid-market is where a secondaries buyer can still double its fund without joining the mega-funds, and Pantheon has just done it. Pantheon said on Wednesday that Pantheon Global Secondaries Fund VIII and its related vehicles closed at $6 billion, 71% above a $3.5 billion target. Its seventh fund had closed at $3.25 billion in November 2023 against a $2 billion target. The eighth fund buys stakes in mid-market buyout funds and backs continuation vehicles for mid-market sponsors, the same mix as the seventh. Its money follows a busy year, because the firm put about $3.35 billion to work across 17 secondary deals in 2025.

Pantheon sells access and data, in its own account of the raise. Its head of private equity secondaries, Amyn Hassanally, joined in 2022 after 17 years at Coller. He says the firm's data on funds and companies lets it "be disciplined about the assets we buy and the partners we back". That discipline matters "particularly in the mid-market where access and selection matters most", he adds. The access now reaches new investors too, because the release says the raise took "significant commitments from new investors across Asia and the Middle East". Those investors arrived three weeks after Pantheon opened an Abu Dhabi office on 30 September, with Firas Mallah hired from Sagard to run it.

The release names no investor and gives no target return, and the $6 billion includes separate accounts beside the fund. Among this year's closes, that $6 billion sits third. CVC Secondary Partners closed its sixth fund at $10 billion in September, and Clipway closed its debut at $6.4 billion in July. Those closes sit in a slower year. Secondaries Investor counted $80.5 billion raised through final closes in the first nine months, with the third quarter 18% below a year earlier, as read here on 20 October. The fourth quarter gets Pantheon's $6 billion, and its largest fund still raising is Strategic Partners X, at $12.3 billion of commitments at 30 September. So the year's count against 2025's $166 billion turns on whether that fund closes before Secondaries Investor counts again in January.

Pantheon's $6bn is the third-largest secondaries close of 2026, behind CVC and Clipway

Final closes announced in 2026, $bn, with the month and the target

Source: the firms' releases and Secondaries Investor: CVC, 3 September 2026; Clipway, 21 July 2026; Pantheon, 21 October 2026; Adams Street, 4 August 2026; G Squared, 5 August 2026.

HVPE turns its discount into a gain

A listed fund of funds has found a way to earn its own discount. It sells fund stakes at a small discount and buys its own shares at a larger one. The fund is HarbourVest Global Private Equity, known as HVPE, the London-listed fund of funds that HarbourVest manages. On Thursday it opened a tender offer for up to $400 million of its shares at 10% below its net asset value at 30 September. At that value the tender price would be about £40.68 a share, against £32.20 in the market on Tuesday. Meanwhile, HVPE's half-year results, out the same morning, counted $207 million received from two secondary sales in the six months to 31 July. That cash pays for the offer, and another $163 million is due before the end of the year.

The December sale set the price. On 16 December HVPE agreed to sell five of HarbourVest's own funds, 7.7% of its net assets, at 94% of their value at 30 June 2025. That sale brings $300 million in two tranches, $138 million in March and $162 million in December. The second sale, in July, moved $70.7 million of co-investments at a price the company did not disclose, QuotedData reported. For instance, selling $100 of value at the December price brings in $94. Spending that $94 on shares at the tender price retires $104 of value. So every dollar that passes through the tender adds about four cents for the holders who stay, before costs. The board calls the tender accretive for that reason, and the directors will not tender their own shares.

The offer completes a package the board announced in April against a discount it calls "persistent". Its promise of a tender helped shareholders approve continuation in July with more than 98% of votes, with the support of Saba Capital and Asset Value Investors, QuotedData says. Saba held 11.09% of HVPE at 29 September, most of it through a swap, as read here on 13 October.

HVPE sold funds at 94% of value and buys its shares at 90%, while the market pays 71%

the December fund sale, the tender price and the share price, as a share of net asset value

HVPE sold something an LP-led buyer rarely prices. Its five positions were HarbourVest funds of funds, priced against a value fifteen months old, and the buyer was not named. That sale is done, and the next decision is the shareholders', on 16 November in St Peter Port, where the two resolutions need 75% of votes cast. Their yes pays out up to $400 million on 25 November, after the offer closes on 19 November. Their no leaves the money in the distribution pool, which held $271 million on 16 October, for buybacks at the market's wider discount. Either way the board counts on a further sale, $256 million in its low case for 2026.

ILPA's final rules keep the 20-day election

ILPA has finished its continuation vehicle rulebook closer to the market's practice than its draft, and the election period is where it gave ground. Its final guidance was published on Tuesday as "Continuation Vehicles: Advancing Alignment Through Best Practices". Its 41 pages ask GPs for an election period "generally at least 20 clear business days from receipt of the final election package, extendable for more complex transactions". By contrast, the draft of 24 June had asked for 30 business days, up from the 30 calendar days of the 2023 guidance, as read here on 5 August. Twenty business days is what Kirkland & Ellis called current market practice in a note of 30 September. That note warned that "a blanket 30-business-day minimum could materially affect transaction execution".

ILPA explains the retreat in its own text, where "longer election periods can make the reference date valuation stale". A stale valuation may push lead investors to seek material adverse change clauses and holdbacks, "each of which can undermine delivering existing LPs with a 'clean' exit", it adds. Its clear day is a full business day with the first day left out, so 20 clear days run about a month. Its floor also moves with the deal, because 20 days "may be inadequate" for a multi-asset vehicle with assets new to the LPs.

The rest of the draft held, starting with the LPAC. The LPAC should get at least 10 business days' notice before the conflicts meeting, with the completed ILPA disclosure template, and no blanket waivers. Waivers aside, GPs "should provide evidence of a competitive auction process", and a strong process "may be sufficient" to avoid "a costly fairness opinion". Finally, the "remain in place" option survives as an appendix, with the warning that it "can add execution risk, extra cost, structural complexity".

The guidance lands as continuation vehicles reach "roughly 14% of sponsor-backed exits globally in 2025, up from 5% in 2021", by ILPA's count. It lands on ILPA's own board too. Its chair Scott Ramsower runs private equity funds at Texas Teachers, which sold about $1 billion of fund stakes to Coller EQT this month, as read here on 13 October. Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported, through Private Equity Wire, that ILPA also warns LPAC members whose institutions buy continuation vehicles of conflicts of their own. Its report named Hamilton Lane, HarbourVest and Partners Group as houses that run both strategies, without accusing any of them. However, one thing from the draft is gone. Its "comply or explain" standard, which Kirkland said would be hard to apply, does not appear in the final text.

On the radar

• Friday 23 October, 1pm, London. Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust holds its annual meeting, where Saba Capital asks for three board seats. The same day Cox Capital's offer for Blue Owl Credit Income shares opens at $7.31, 20% below the 31 August value.
• Wednesday 28 October, 8am, New York. Evercore reports its third quarter, its first call since it made Nigel Dawn, who built its secondaries advisory unit, co-president. The same day Cerebras can release up to about 19.4 million more shares from its lock-up.
• Week of 9 November, Luxembourg. Shareholders of Partners Group's Global Value SICAV vote on splitting the €6.6 billion gated fund in two. Partners Group cut the fund's fees by 25 to 75 basis points on 20 October to keep investors in. If they vote yes, a distributing fund is created that sells older stakes to pay those who want out.
• Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 November, New York. SuperReturn Secondaries North America meets at Convene on Madison Avenue, with Coller, HarbourVest 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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