Akin Gump Lawyers Featured in Private Equity International’s Secondaries Report on GP-led Deals

Private Equity International has featured a Q&A with Akin Gump investment management partners Fadi Samman, Daniel Quinn and Aleks Bakic in its article, “GP-led deals gather pace and complexity.” The three discuss the evolution of the secondaries market and what they predict for the future.

Looking first at where the most activity may be in the secondaries market, Quinn spoke of GP-led restructurings and innovation in deal structures. These deal types, Bakic said, “are symptomatic of a market that has been evolving to offer stakeholders a range of options catering to whatever outcome they seek to achieve, whether full or partial liquidity, new capital or otherwise.” Samman also spoke of GP-led deals that are “expanding into new asset classes, having initially been principally private equity and venture capital, to now include real estate, energy and credit.”

The conversation also touched on new guidance from the Institutional Limited Partners Association and its impact on GP-led deals. (Click here to learn about Akin Gump’s contribution to the guidance.) “It’s too early to say,” said Samman, “and in fact the guidelines may help educate the LP market” by providing a roadmap on how to approach them. Bakic added that the guidance is, in some way, “a codification of best practice and what many sponsors were doing already.”

Quinn highlighted some of what he thinks comprise a successful GP-led transaction, starting with “making sure there is a really good rationale for doing the deal.” In addition, he said investors “need to feel like they’ve had enough time, and information, to make a properly informed choice” and you need to make sure the deal "works for everyone.”

Looking ahead, the three shared their views on what’s in store for the secondaries market. Quinn said he expects to see “some consolidation of practice on the more traditional GP-led deals and terms will begin to standardize.” Bakic, meanwhile, said it will be interesting to see what happens in the event of a downturn, where “we might see participants revisiting past deals with greater scrutiny,” while Samman is looking for increased competition.

To read the article in its entirety, please click here.