Why GP-led secondaries are now every adviser's conversation to have

A decade ago, the GP-led secondaries market totalled just $8 billion in transaction volume. In 2025, it hit $108 billion. That is not a market trend. That is a structural transformation, and it is moving fast.

For Australian advisers fielding sharper questions about private markets, GP-led continuation vehicles are increasingly relevant.

Coller Capital, one of the world’s largest private market secondaries managers, has published new insights on the segment, drawing on senior figures from across advisory, GP execution, and both equity and credit secondaries investing.

The headline finding: continuation vehicles are now the fastest-growing segment of the secondary market, and private credit is the next major growth frontier.

What a continuation vehicle actually does

At its core, the structure solves a timing problem. Instead of being forced by fund timelines to sell a high-performing asset to a competitor, a GP transfers that asset into a new vehicle, maintains control, and keeps pursuing value creation. Existing investors get a clear choice: exit at fair value or roll forward and capture further upside.

Nigel Dawn of Evercore calls continuation vehicles “the third door of liquidity” for GPs, alongside M&A and IPOs. That framing helps. It positions GP-leds not as a workaround but as a legitimate and increasingly preferred mechanism within the broader liquidity toolkit.

Jeremy Coller, chief investment officer and managing partner at Coller Capital, is direct about the shift:

“Since we did our first in 1996, GP-leds have gone from zombie funds that nobody wanted, to secondary buyouts that everybody wanted, to continuation vehicles that let you hold on to your best assets instead of selling them to your biggest rivals. In 2026, CVs aren’t an emergency exit. They’re a preferred exit, the route of choice for investors everywhere.”

A common misconception worth addressing

There is still a view that continuation vehicles exist to offload assets that failed to find buyers elsewhere. The data does not support it.

In practice, only around half of single-asset transactions brought to market end up closing. The ones that succeed are typically already generating around 3x returns, with a credible pathway to a further 2 to 3x growth, backed by resilient cash flows, strong organic growth, and multiple value creation levers.

The quality bar is high, and rising. Lead cheque sizes have grown from $100 to $200 million five years ago to $500 million to $1 billion today. Secondary investors now approach diligence with the rigour of primary buyout managers, with board and observer seats becoming standard practice in large transactions.

The GP-led secondaries market by the numbers

GP-led volumes rose from $77 billion in 2024 to a record $108 billion in 2025, more than 13 times the $8 billion recorded a decade ago. Single-asset continuation vehicles are now the most prevalent transaction format, with 29 per cent of deals exceeding $1 billion.

Despite that growth, the secondary market remains structurally underfunded relative to primary private capital, carrying just one year of dry powder. That gives investors real selectivity to focus on quality rather than chasing deal flow.

Private credit is opening a new chapter

GP-leds are not just an equity story. Private credit is emerging as the next major growth area within the GP-led secondaries market.

As the private credit asset class matures, the mechanics of continuation vehicles are being applied to credit portfolios, creating a new segment with its own return dynamics and investor considerations worth tracking closely.

What advisers should be asking now

Coller Capital has spent more than three decades building the secondaries asset class and has directed growing attention toward Australia’s private wealth sector.

With roughly 11,500 financial advisers in Australia, the firm sees local advisers as increasingly important participants in conversations about how portfolios are structured, how managers are aligned, and where liquidity sits.

GP alignment is the central signal in any continuation vehicle. The GP should be rolling their full interest, ideally increasing their position, and forgoing any liquidity they could have taken. When that alignment is present, the structure works as intended.

If your investment committee is not yet asking questions about GP-led secondaries, the data suggests now is the right time to start.