Where Are the Secondaries Sellers?

What held back deal volume in the private equity secondaries market in 2012, and what will drive more robust deal flow in the years ahead? No one follows transaction volume more closely than our three featured experts: Jason Gull, Partner & Global Head of Secondary Investments at Adams Street Partners, Bill Murphy, Managing Director of Cogent Partners and Mark Maruszewski a Partner at StepStone Group. In a candid exchange, the three discuss the market distractions and “seller apathy” that prevented 2012 from eclipsing 2011, analyze conditions in Europe, weight the seller pressures imposed by Basel III, Solvency II and the Volker Rule, ask whether a “negative stigma” is still attached to doing a secondaries deal, and make their bold predictions for 2013 deal volume. This is the second in a four-part series on the private equity secondaries market.