Quality remains the defining filter
A persistent misconception is that continuation vehicles are used to offload assets that failed to find buyers elsewhere. The market data does not support this. Anecdotally, only around 50% of single-asset transactions brought to market end up closing,1 reflecting genuine selectivity on the part of secondary investors. Assets that succeed are typically those already generating strong returns — around 3x — with a credible pathway to 2–3x further growth. Secondaries managers can afford to be selective about which assets they chose to invest in.
What makes a strong continuation vehicle candidate?
The best assets share consistent characteristics: resilient cash flows, strong organic growth, and multiple value creation levers such as organic expansion, M&A, and margin improvement. GPs who approach the market having already tried and failed to sell an asset through a conventional process are quickly identified. The strongest transactions are those where a GP has tracked an asset as a likely compounder from year two or three of ownership — not those driven by DPI pressure alone.
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First off, it would be a quality asset, one that we and the GP believes will continue to compound.
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I think the second thing that we look for is a good quality manager. It’s probably somebody we have a relationship with so that we understand the rationale of running this transaction.
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But it has to be a good quality manager that that we would also feel confident could manage this asset.
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Most importantly I think, is actually alignment; one of our non-negotiables.
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We want to make sure the GP is a buyer of the asset, and so alignment is crucial for us.
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And lastly, it’s if we believe we can come up with a fair valuation that works for both parties.
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Those are probably the top four things that we look for.
1 Nigel Dawn, Evercore. (2026, April). “GP-Led Continuation Funds Panel”, Coller Capital LP Meeting.
