AGM Alts & Wealth Weekly News Roundup | 8.29.25
The news of the week in private markets and wealth management
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AGM News Roundup
🏦 Wealth Management
MAI Capital Management to buy $27B Evoke Advisors | Ian Wenik | Citywire | One of the largest combinations of RIAs in recent years took place this week, with MAI Capital Management acquiring $27B Evoke Advisors to create a $60B “super RIA” (see more for AGM’s thoughts on “super RIAs” here from 2023 and here from 2025).
HNY clients want alts - but only 51% of advisors offer them: Report | Eva Thomas | Citywire | A new report from Cerulli found that advisors are aware of HNW client demand for private markets exposure, but only half of advisors actually offer them.
Wells Fargo to offer alts in UMAs | Tania Mitra | Citywire | Wells Fargo’s Wealth and Investment Management Division is offering private markets exposure through its unified managed account (UMA) program, partnering with InvestCloud to make alts available in UMAs.
Retirement savers are eager to invest in private assets, new survey finds | Kerry Hannon | Yahoo Finance | Nearly half of investors participating in 401(k) and similar workplace retirement savings plans say they would invest in private equity and private credit if their plan offered them, according to investment manager Schroders' 2025 US Retirement Survey,
Merchant stakes $2.5bn UHNW- focused Cali RIA Validus | Andrew Foerch | Citywire | $260B RIA minority investor Merchant took a stake in El Segundo, CA based RIA Validus, a firm with $2.5B AUM.
🌲 Evergreen Funds
iCapital adds Pantheon credit secondaries fund to platform | John Schaffer | Citywire | iCapital has added the Pantheon Global Credit Secondaries evergreen fund for investors outside the US.
Evergreen funds: What are the liquidity and fund structuring considerations? | Veronica Aroutiunian | Private Equity International | An Op-Ed by Loyens & Loeff Luxembourg Partner Veronica Aroutiunian covers the nuances of evergreen funds, with Aroutiunian stating that evergreen funds should be viewed as medium- to long-term investment vehicles.
💸 Private Equity
Private equity fundraising slides as sector's downturn deepens | Hannah Pedone, Antoine Gara, Ivan Levingston | Financial Times | According to data from Preqin, private equity firms raised their lowest figure for seven years, bringing in $592B in the 12 months to June.
PE market thaw could boost Q4 dealmaking | Madeline Shi | PitchBook | Deal advisors say they are seeing signs of the PE deal machine thawing, marked by a notable increase in new sell-side mandates and a narrowing valuation gap between sellers and buyers.
Australia's biggest pension fund to add 10 more private equity managers | Mary McDougall and Alexandra Heal | Financial Times | Australia’s largest pension fund, $254B AUM AustralianSuper, plans to increase the number of private equity firms that it partners with by 50% in the next 5 years, investing in an additional 10 funds by 2030.
Middle East pacing to set new PE deal record | Emily Lai | PitchBook | PE investments in the Middle East are on pace to set a record, with the region’s total deal value for 2025 (100 PE deals totaling $13.6B in deal value) is already nearing last year’s figure.
Carlyle to acquire Intelliflo from Invesco for $200M | Victoria Bell | Citywire | Carlyle bought financial advisor back office provider Intelliflo from Invesco.
💳 Private Credit
BlackRock Paused Fundraising for Latest Asia Private Credit Fund | Kari Soo Lindberg and Megawati Wijaya | Bloomberg | BlackRock has paused fundraising for its latest $1B Asian private credit fund due to its merger with HPS Investment Partners.
Apollo extends £40M in racehorse-backed debt to football super-agent | Euan Healy | Financial Times | Apollo’s recent debt deal with football super-agent Kia Joorabchian highlights the trend of alternative asset managers providing financing solutions in the sports space.
🏠 Real Estate
Real estate managers pivot strategies in the tariff era | Greg Dool | Private Equity Real Estate | With private real estate investing facing challenging headwinds from inflation and tariffs, real estate managers have seen a pullback from non-US investors.
Private Real Estate Recovery Signals Market Bottom | Valerija I. | CRE Daily | According to a report from Cohen & Steers, private real estate has seen an improvement in returns, lending conditions, and deal volumes with the NCREIF NFI-ODCE Index, a key benchmark for institutional-quality real estate, posting four consecutive quarters of positive returns.
🥈 Secondaries
Eldridge Capital Targets $1B for New PE Financing Fund | Preeti Singh and Alexandre Rajbhandari | Bloomberg | Eldridge Capital Management is seeking to raise $1B for a GP solutions fund to participate in the growing secondaries market and continuation vehicle financing activity.
Private Equity's Plan B: Navigating the exit drought with continuation Funds | Alon Kapen | SecondaryLink | Farrell Fritz Partner Alon Kapen published an Op-Ed in SecondaryLink discussing the growing trend of PE firms utilizing continuation vehicles and diving into a recent $3B CV transaction by New Mountain Capital with its portfolio company Real Chemistry.
Spotify and Revolut-backer Lakestar closes $265M continuation fund | Miriam Partington | Sifted | Lakestar has partnered with Lexington Partners, the lead investor in a new $265M continuation vehicle, Industry Ventures, Performance Equity Management, and a group of secondary investors to raise one of Europe’s largest venture capital CVs to date.
Big secondaries discounts not be-all and end-all for Indosuez | John Schaffer | Citywire | Credit Agricole’s wealth unit Indosuez Wealth Management believes there are opportunities in private markets secondaries.
🛠️ Infrastructure
Data Centers to Propel Infra Securitizations Past $110 Billion by 2026 End | Scott Carpenter | Bloomberg | Bank of America estimates the market for data center securitizations could grow by 46% by the end of next year to $115B, with data centers currently accounting for 61% of the current $79B market for digital infrastructure securitizations.
Private infrastructure: Why wealthy families are turning to an often overlooked asset class | Steve Randall | InvestmentNews | Luke Taylor, Co-President of $76.3B AUM Stonepeak, sat down with InvestmentNews to discuss private infrastructure investing and why it can make senes for wealth channel investors, noting that “at its heart, it’s a defensive asset class that provides predictable, long-term cash flows, inflation protection in a range of macroeconomic environments, and exposure to some of the most impactful megatrends of the 21st century.”
🥩 GP Stakes
Big 12: Why Goldman Sachs' Petershill Partners is in 'right place for next five years' | Jeremy Gordon | Citywire | Citywire’s Jeremy Gordon sits down for an interview with Goldman Sachs’ Petershill Co-Head Ali Raissi-Dehkordy to discuss the firm’s strategy of taking minority equity stakes in alternative asset managers, including recent sales of General Catalyst, whose $700m (£520m) sale occurred at a 62% premium earlier this year, and the industry’s continued growth from “an $11T industry getting closer to $19T by the end of decade …” (listen to Goldman Petershill’s Co-President Robert Hamilton Kelly on Alt Goes Mainstream here)
Brevan Howard and Lunate Announce Long-Term Strategic Partnership to Establish Investment Platform in Abu Dhabi | Lunate | Lunate, the $110B AUM Abu Dhabi-based global asset manager and Brevan Howard, the $34B AUM hedge fund, have formed a strategic partnership that will include a $2B commitment from Lunate (and will include a minority stake in Brevan) to establish an investment platform to be domiciled in Abu Dhabi Global Market.
🔬 Private Markets Research
HarbourVest Partners Releases New Private Equity Benchmark Projections for Q2 2025 | BusinessWire | HarbourVest released its Q2 2025 Private Equity Benchmarks, indicating performance of 6.1% in Global Buyout, 3.4% in US Buyout, and 7% in US Venture Capital. Public markets benchmarks outperformed private markets benchmarks in Q2 2025 and in trailing 12 months; private markets outperformed in public markets in trailing 5-year and 10-year time periods.
Q2 2025 US VC Secondary Market Watch | Nizar Tarhuni, Paul Condra, Kyle Stanford, Emily Zheng, Harrison Waldock and Chloe Ladwig | PitchBook | The US direct venture secondary market achieved $61.1B in transaction volume over the past year.
