Secondaries drew more favorable views than any other strategy from the 225 investors Goldman Sachs surveyed this summer. In that survey, 44% see better opportunities than a year ago and 15% see worse ones, and a lack of distributions is the first brake on new commitments. That report, dated 22 October, is the Sunday read. Meanwhile, Cox Capital, whose bids for BDC shares expire from 3 November, will lend holders up to 65% of their value as well.

LPs favor secondaries three to one

Limited partners want to buy what their peers are selling, Goldman Sachs Asset Management's new survey shows. The survey covered 225 limited partners between June and August, its report says. Of them, 44% see better opportunities in secondaries than a year ago and 15% see worse ones, which the report calls "positive sentiment outweighing negative by nearly 3-to-1". No other strategy got a larger share of better views, and infrastructure came closest at 43% better and 7% worse. Private equity itself sat at 24% better against 20% worse, and secondaries were not asked about in 2025, so there is no earlier reading to compare.

Secondaries drew the largest share of better views of the eight strategies, 44%

How 225 LPs feel about opportunities compared to a year ago, June to August 2026

Source: Goldman Sachs Asset Management, 2026 Global Alternatives Survey: The LP View, p.7, dated 22 October 2026.

The same investors explain the appetite. Asked what most affects their deployment plans, 35% of them named a lack of distributions, ahead of changes to allocation targets at 29%, on page 10. Asked for the biggest challenge in their private equity book, 28% said liquidity, on page 11. So the money for new funds is waiting for cash that has not come back, and investors in that position sell the stakes that secondaries buyers purchase. Goldman's Stephanie Rader puts the buyer's side this way on page 8: "As realization timelines extend, liquidity has become a source of competitive advantage."

Deployment itself has not stopped, the report shows, and its conclusion on page 16 reads: "The main limit on deployment is the pace of distributions, not investors' appetite." Of its respondents, 37% expect to deploy more capital than last year and 11% less, against 43% expecting more a year earlier.

The survey does not say how many of these investors sold, though the 2025 edition, which also surveyed general partners, did ask. It found that 17% of LPs had been sellers in the secondary market, up from 11% a year before. However, the latest edition asks about appetite only, and that appetite was priced on 31 March, when nine evergreen funds paid a median 87.7% of NAV for LP portfolios.

The week brings the buyers' own numbers, starting with Evercore's third quarter on Wednesday. Then Ares, Blue Owl and TPG report on Thursday, with the quarter's inflows to their secondaries and evergreen funds. On Friday Partners Group's gated evergreen moves to a 2.5% quarterly redemption threshold, half the current one, before shareholders vote on splitting it in the week of 9 November.

Since Friday

• DEAL  Cox Capital, whose bids for BDC shares expire from 3 November, said on Friday it will lend holders 50% to 65% of value too.
• FILING  Robinhood Ventures Fund I, the listed pre-IPO fund that raised $658 million in March, filed a shelf on Friday to sell more shares.
• FILING  Shasta Ventures filed on Friday for a $10 million vehicle named for OpenAI, and Ashlar Capital's third such vehicle raised $4.1 million from 32 investors.
• FILING  ME Realty Partners, a New Jersey real estate investor, filed on 21 October for a continuation fund for an earlier fund's investors, nothing raised yet.
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On the radar, the week of 26 October

• Monday 26 October, New York. Another 328.4 million SpaceX shares become sellable under page 259 of its prospectus, after the 1.3 billion released on 22 October, so the pre-listing vehicles' holders can sell too.
• Wednesday 28 October, 8am, New York. Evercore reports its third quarter, its first call since it made Nigel Dawn, who built its secondaries unit, co-president. Lazard's Peter Orszag said on Thursday that stalled exits feed his secondaries desk, as read on Friday.
• Thursday 29 October, New York. Ares at 9am, Blue Owl at 10am and TPG at 11am report their third quarters. Their calls give what their secondaries funds and evergreens raised in the quarter.
• Friday 30 October, then the week of 9 November, Luxembourg. The new share classes of Partners Group's Global Value SICAV move to a 2.5% quarterly redemption threshold, half the current one. Shareholders then vote on splitting the €6.6 billion gated fund in two. A yes creates a distributing fund that sells older stakes to pay those who want out.
• Monday 2 November, 3pm, London, then Tuesday 3 November, New York. HarbourVest Global Private Equity holds a private markets update two weeks before shareholders vote on its $400 million tender at 10% below net asset value. The next day Apollo reports its third quarter at 8:30am, and at 5pm Cox Capital's offers for Blackstone Private Credit Fund and HPS Corporate Lending Fund shares expire.
• 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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