What used to be a tiny part of the industry has flourished (see chart)."Secondary" stakes change hands when investors, who typically agree to lock up their money for a decade, decide to sell early.
Most of our deals are a mix of primary and secondary stakes.
And if banks are required to reduce their own investments in alternative assets, that should be a boost for the secondary market for stakes in private-equity funds.
An alternative for the city-state of Berlin is to do a secondary offering of its 81% stake.
REUTERS Icahn Presses Pause on Lions Gate Share Sale | Carl C. Icahn's plans to unload part of his Lions Gate Entertainment stake in a secondary share offering have been temporarily shelved because of market conditions, Reuters reports.
Last year Alta Berkeley and Charterhouse Venture Fund sold their combined 20% stake in a secondary offering that netted them $17.8 million.
The categorizing of questions was done independently by the first author and another science educator who had eight years of teaching experience in secondary schools and had no stake in this study.
Few in the industry favour this, though, arguing that private-equity managers should know better than outsiders what their investments are worth.Another option might be to use prices in the secondary market for private-equity stakes and portfolios.
It is striking that so-called "secondary" sales by clients of stakes in buy-out funds are reputedly taking place at large discounts to their reported values, although again trading remains very thin.In the end pressure for consistent and conservative valuations must come from clients.
