Greenpark Capital: First half of 2009 saw more secondaries go to market and fail to be bought than ever before

Speaking to AltAssets, Green said, “I do not think there has ever been a period before when so many deals have fallen over, or, at least, not even got off the ground.”

Despite the market for LP fund stakes not taking off as expected during Q1 and Q2 of this year, Green is hopeful for the latter half of the year as investors risk defaulting cash calls in the funds they have committed to.  

“People will feel the pinch and be looking for sources of capital, and where that is not available they will have to look to secondaries.  We are expecting there to be an increased level of activity in the second half of the year. A big increase. The first half of was pretty slow,” he added.

Green also expects banks to be entering the secondaries market. He said, “A lot of banks have assets sitting on their balance sheets which, when you look at capital ratios, are expensive to hold. The banks want to make money from lending money, if they can. They could be earning a heck of a lot more money from lending money than the assets they are hanging onto are worth. Banks will be looking to sell portfolios because of this.”

Launched in 2000, Greenpark Capital is a London-based secondaries player focused on the mid-market with more than €1.3bn under management across three funds.

Green joined the firm near its inception, in 2001. He was promoted to investment director in July 2007.

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