AGM Alts & Wealth Weekly News Roundup | 12.12.25
The news of the week in private markets and wealth management
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AGM News Roundup
🏦 Wealth Management
As 401(k) plans eye alts, iCapital coaches public and private investors on convergence | Alexander Davis | PitchBook | iCapital’s Co-Founder Dan Vene and recently hired MD, Alternatives in Retirement Portfolios Drew Carrington talked with PitchBook about the opportunity for private markets products to be part of 401(k)s and how and why private markets can play a role in retirement portfolios.
Alts are here to stay as RIAs and family offices lead adoption: CAIS | Alec Rich | Citywire | A survey conducted by CAIS and Mercer found that 90% of the 789 advisors currently allocate to private markets.
Eroding yields in fixed income set up the big wealth management debate of 2026 | David Stubbs | AlphaCore for Citywire | In a guest column, AlphaCore Wealth Advisory Chief Investment Strategist David Stubbs outlined the compelling opportunities presented by private credit, real estate, and infrastructure for advisors willing to commit to private markets.
Poll: RIA CIOs targeting growth, alts exposure for 2026 | Andrew Foerch | Citywire | A number of RIA investment decision-makers polled at Citywire’s RIA CIO Summit said that expanding alternative allocations is their top priority for 2026.
Invesco Teams Up With LGT on Private Equity and Credit for Retail | Silla Brush | Bloomberg | Invesco has partnered with LGT Capital Partners to deliver private equity, credit, secondaries, and infrastructure assets in portfolios to US individual and retirement investors.
🌲 Evergreen Funds
Exclusive: Quilter Cheviot to enter private markets via KKR PE fund | John Schaffer | Citywire | Quilter Cheviot will add private markets to its discretionary portfolio service from January via KKR’s K-Prime evergreen PE fund, making it one of the first major UK DFMs to enter private markets.
BlackRock’s HPS Plots New ‘H Series’ Private Funds for Retail | Silla Brush | Bloomberg | BlackRock is planning to roll out a series of new private markets funds for individual investors with a family of five to seven funds built out and run by credit specialist HPS Investment Partners, BlackRock CFO Martin Small said at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference.
🛠️ Private Markets Infrastructure
Top Exchanges Set Sights on Derivatives for Private Markets | Isis Almeida and Katherine Doherty | Bloomberg | Cboe, CME, and Intercontinental Exchange are considering launching futures and options on private companies and the investment firms that own them. Morningstar, which bought PitchBook in 2016, has been in conversations with exchanges about the potential for financial instruments based on its benchmarks, according to Sanjay Arya, head of innovation at the company’s index business.
Revolut Forms Team to Bring Private Markets to Retail Investors | Aisha Gani | Bloomberg | Revolut is in the early stage of building out its private markets team by recruiting a team to build relationships with fund managers “across the private capital ecosystem,” according to a job listing by the firm.
💸 Private Equity
Private Equity Deal Boom Is Finally Happening, Goldman CFO Says | Todd Gillespie | Bloomberg | Goldman Sachs CFO Denis Coleman said this week at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference that private equity dealmaking is ramping up, with announced deal volumes up 40% this year.
Wrexham AFC Welcomes Apollo Sports Capital as a Minority Investor | Apollo Global Management | Wrexham AFC, the English Football League Championship club led by Co-Chairmen Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, has received financing from Apollo Sports Capital, an affiliate of Apollo, as a new minority investor in the club [you can read more about my views on this investment here on LinkedIn].
More $1 Billion+ Deals in Private Markets | Torsten Slok | Apollo | After the Fed started raising interest rates in 2022, more deals over $1 billion have moved from IPOs to private markets.
University of Utah athletics breaks ground with landmark PE deal | Jessica Hamlin | PitchBook | The University of Utah approved a landmark deal between its sports department and PE firm Otro Capital, which will mark the first official partnership between a university athletics program and a PE firm.
💳 Private Credit
Private Credit: Fact vs. Fiction | Apollo Global Management | Apollo shared a 125 page presentation on private credit.
Brookfield’s Oaktree to invest in Allianz insurance risks | Lee Harris | Financial Times | Brookfield’s Oaktree will invest hundreds of millions of dollars to reinsure policies sold by Allianz, setting up a new vehicle at Lloyd’s of London to reinsure risks covered by Allianz.
Private Credit Hit Deployment Record Last Year, ACC Report Says | Francesca Veronesi | Bloomberg | Capital deployed into private credit reached record highs, according to data from the Alternative Credit Council. Deal volume hit $592.8B in 2024, a 78% YoY increase from 2023, with the largest firms, including Ares, Apollo, and Blackstone, accounting for 85% of deployment.
TPG Collects $6.2 Billion for Bespoke Private-Credit Deals | Laura Benitez | Bloomberg | TPG Credit, the legacy Angelo Gordon business, surpassed its $4.5B fundraising target for its third Credit Solutions Fund, which will largely invest in bespoke debt financings from public and private borrowers.
🏠 Real Estate
TPG Prepares for Real Estate Fundraising Push Across Firm | Allison McNeely | Bloomberg | TPG is making a major fundraising push for its real estate business, aiming to raise $9-10B for its next opportunistic real estate fund as investors are interested in the investment strategy given that valuations declined 15-25% in recent years.
Norway’s $2.1 Trillion Wealth Fund Shuns Data Centers | Heidi Taksdal Skjeseth and Natasha Voase | Bloomberg | Norges Bank Investment Management’s $2.1T sovereign wealth fund does not plan to make data centers a major part of its three-year investment strategy. The firm said it will focus on broadening its portfolio of renewable energy infrastructure assets.
🥈 Secondaries
Unlocking liquidity: How secondaries and CVs are freeing the US PE exit pipeline | Omar Hemady & Stephen Culhane from White & Case | SecondaryLink | White & Case Partners Omar Hemady and Stephen Culhane note in an op-ed on SecondaryLink that US exit values via M&A have more than halved between 2021 and 2024, dropping from $402B to $180.2B, which has driven secondary and CV deal volume.
🛠️ Infrastructure
Brookfield, Qatar Team Up on $20 Billion AI Investment Venture | Nicolas Parasie and Dinesh Nair | Bloomberg | Brookfield Asset Management and QIA are teaming up on a $20B venture to invest in AI infrastructure, with the JV aiming to advance Qatar’s National Vision 2030 and help build a diversified, innovation-based economy, according to QIA’s CEO Mohammed Saif Al-Sowaidi.
MacLean Power Systems and Power Grid Components Join Forces to Form Leading Supplier of Engineered Components and Solutions for Utility Infrastructure | Blackstone | MacLean Power Systems and Power Grid Components, two leading manufacturers of engineered components and solutions for electrical transmission, distribution, substation, and communication infrastructure, announced a merger and recapitalization of MPS. Funds affiliated with Blackstone will become a majority owner of the combined company.
🥩 GP Stakes
Jefferies to Acquire 50% Interest in Hildene Holding Company, Expanding Strategic Relationship that Began in 2022 | PR Newswire | Jefferies is acquiring a 50% interest in Hildene Holding Company, the parent of Hildene Capital Management, a credit-focused asset manager with over $18B AUM.
Diamond Hill to Be Acquired by First Eagle Investments | Diamond Hill | Diamond Hill, a publicly traded multi-strategy investment firm with $32.4B AUM, has been acquired by $208B AUM First Eagle Investments in an all-cash transaction that values Diamond Hill at $473M.
🔬 Private Markets Research
Alternatives Decoded | iCapital | iCapital released its Q4 2025 Alternatives Decoded chartbook, with notable highlights including private equity’s uptick in flows on the platform in Q3 2025 relative to the prior three quarters and direct lending’s sustained flows over the past two years.
What’s (in) the Deal? Transparency in Private-Equity Risk Modeling | Abdulla Zaid, Ricardo Bustos, and Thomas Verbraken | MSCI | MSCI finds that the US buyout universe is more concentrated in industrials and healthcare and less so in financials.
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Really solid curation this week. The detail on 401k platforms opening to alts caught my eye because in my work I keep hearing advisors talk about access issues but not the regulatory shifts that are actully enabling it. That Brookfield-Qatar AI infrastructure partnership is kinda wild when you think about the scale.