'Steady contributor': AIMCo sees boom in private equity secondary deals
Smaller investors are beginning to test the secondary market for private equity holdings, providing greater stability to pricing, according to Alberta’s public pension manager.
“We’re starting to see the evolution of that market,” Marlene Puffer, chief investment officer at Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo), said in an interview. “It’s not just sellers trying to take things off their books, and bottom feeders taking advantage of it. We’re starting to see a more balanced demand and supply in the secondary market.”
As a result, “discounts are starting to stabilize,” Puffer said.
The Alberta firm, known as AIMCo, handles about $169 billion for a variety of public-sector accounts in the province. More than a third of that portfolio is in private markets, including infrastructure, real estate and private equity.
AIMCo has been “quite pleased” with how the secondaries market is working for them, Puffer said, but declined to speak about specific transactions.
Investment bank PJT Partners Inc. expects that secondaries deal volume may reach US$145 billion this year, which would represent an all-time high, according to a recent report. The first half of the year saw a 40 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2023.
Meanwhile, AIMCo continues to push deeper into private credit — “a real steady contributor to our performance, as we are able to invest in that asset class in a way that kind of transcends the cycle,” Puffer said.
AIMCo is already active in middle-market private credit. Now it’s focusing on getting into more larger-cap U.S. deals, she said.
Overall, AIMCo earned a 5.4 per cent return in the first half of the year, led by gains in equities, the firm said in a statement Tuesday.
“Results are not too
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