AGM Unscripted: Goldman Sachs' Harold Hope - Secondaries: A Primary Consideration

What It Covers

Harold Hope, global head of vintage strategies at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, explains how the secondaries market has evolved from $2 billion annual volume 25 years ago to over $200 billion today, driven by problem-solving innovation and growing demand for liquidity in private markets.

Key Questions Answered

• •Market Growth Trajectory: The secondaries market processes over $200 billion in annual volume currently, up from $2 billion 25 years ago, with potential to reach $400-500 billion as the pool of illiquid private assets has tripled in the last decade, creating expanding opportunities for liquidity provision.
• •Continuation Vehicle Strategy: Single-asset continuation vehicles solve a critical problem for general partners who face pressure to generate distributions for fundraising but want to retain their best-performing companies. This structure provides LP liquidity while allowing GPs to continue managing assets and participating in future value creation.
• •Portfolio Approach to Discounts: Successful secondaries investing requires buying both tail-end portfolios at steep discounts where companies show limited growth potential and high-quality assets at smaller discounts or through continuation vehicles, rather than focusing exclusively on either discount-oriented or quality-focused strategies.
• •Scale and Specialization Requirements: Effective secondaries firms need dedicated teams with specialized expertise across private equity, real estate, infrastructure, credit, and venture capital, speaking the language of each asset class. Scale enables investment in technology infrastructure, including teams of 14-plus engineers and 30-year databases analyzed with AI for valuing portfolios containing 400-plus companies.