LP appetite for secondaries is on the up as just over half of investors look to tap the market to buy and sell fund stakes in the near term.

Of the 110 private markets investors surveyed by Coller Capital for its summer 2025 Global Private Capital Barometer, 37 percent of respondents said they plan to increase their commitments to secondaries over the next 12 months, following private credit as the most popular asset class.

Demand for secondaries investment is on the up from Coller’s last barometer, published in December, where 29 percent of respondents said they planned to increase their allocations to secondaries. The latest survey’s findings are also in line with last summer’s report.

Additionally, the survey found around a quarter of LPs are looking to sell private equity assets on the secondaries market in the next two years, excluding GP-led processes. A further 8 percent of investors said they would like to buy stakes, with 22 percent looking to do both. A quarter of respondents are planning to buy or sell real assets exposure, with just under a fifth of respondents considering private credit opportunities.

LPs are beginning to see the secondaries market as a “natural portfolio management tool” to ease distribution issues and adjust portfolios, Coller partner Katrina Liao told Secondaries Investor.

“You’re seeing a rising number of LPs becoming familiar with and participating in the secondary market – either as a buyer or seller,” Liao said. “These transactions are efficient and can complete quickly, and it’s become an accepted part of the market, to trade in and out of these positions.”

Early days on GP-led performance

As LPs have become more familiar with continuation funds, there has been an improvement in alignment with GPs, with sponsors reinvesting “substantial” capital alongside rolling investors, Coller observed in the report.

While GP-leds are the fastest driver of growth for the secondaries market, its size is capped by dry powder, Liao said. “There is a considered approach by advisers and GPs when it comes to launching a CV and the market is undercapitalised, so the pipeline continues to remain strong.”

LPs, as well as secondaries market participants, have had a keen eye on the performance of continuation fund vehicles as the market for funds housing crown jewel assets continues to grow. Most continuation funds analysed by Evercore and HEC School of Management in Paris across 2018 through to 2023 are yet to realise their returns, according to their recent Continuation Fund Performance Report.

For many LPs, it was too early to tell how continuation vehicles performed compared to their expectations, Coller’s report found. Of those respondents who shared a view of continuation fund performance, just under half of LPs said single-asset CVs had met or exceeded their expectations, while over a third said the same of multi-assets.

Evergreen or closed-end?

Interest in evergreen funds has jumped, with 33 percent of LPs indicating they plan to invest in private equity, private credit and real assets evergreens. That figure was 21 percent in last year’s report.

Liao noted that secondaries investments “make the most sense” for evergreen vehicles. Such investments offer duration benefits – mitigating cash drag – as well as discount benefits for vehicles aiming to get as close to the returns of closed-end private markets funds, as Secondaries Investor has previously reported.

While most respondents said their allocations for closed-end funds and evergreens are distinct, 29 percent believe that an increase in the number of semi-liquid funds will impact their institution’s allocation policy to traditional closed-end funds. This belief is more widely held among LPs under $20 billion in AUM and less so in those above.

“If you are an LP who is offered both products, what do you do?” Liao said. “The report is indicating that some LPs [under $20 billion of AUM are saying], ‘If we allocate to evergreens, we’d have to reduce our exposure to closed-end funds’.”