Firms & Funds

Goldman is lead buyer of CDPQ’s billion-plus PE portfolio

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Goldman Sachs, Caisse de Depot et placement du Quebec, pension fund, private equity, Canada
Old Quebec City. Steven Kriemadis/iStock/Getty Images
  • CDPQ becoming more of a direct investor
  • Launched process for portfolio earlier this year
  • Secondary market is hyperactive as year comes to close

Goldman Sachs was lead buyer of a large portfolio of secondary stakes valued at about $1.3 billion sold by Caisse de Depot et placement du Quebec, sources told Buyouts.

How much of the portfolio Goldman took or which other firms were involved is unclear.

CDPQ’s portfolio was one of several large transactions on the secondary market this year that again will help drive deal volume to record levels, sources said.

On Monday, Buyouts reported that sources said Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a portfolio of PE stakes valued at about US$1.7 billion sold by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

Traditional LP sales still represent the bulk of secondary deals, though GP-led liquidity processes are quickly taking more share of the market.

CDPQ, whose PE portfolio closed last year with C$37.3 billion in assets, worked with Greenhill Cogent on the portfolio sale. The transaction hit the market earlier this year, Buyouts previously reported.

Caisse did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Goldman declined comment.

The Canadian financial institution is becoming more of a direct PE investor, closing on more than C$7.6 billion in deals in 2017, Buyouts has reported.

Direct investments represented about 75 percent of the PE portfolio, Caisse said on its website.

The secondary market has become hyperactive as sellers try to get their processes complete by year-end.

Several large portfolios are getting wrapped up in the final months, including those shopped by public systems in Maryland, Florida, Los Angeles County and Michigan.

Other systems considering a sale, which would likely hit the market next year, include systems in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Colorado.

Public pensions and sovereign-wealth funds represented the largest percentage of sellers on the secondary market in the first half, about 20 percent, down from about 24 percent last year, Greenhill Cogent’s first-half secondary-volume report shows.

Total market volume last year reached an estimated $48 billion, from $34 billion in 2016, according to a volume report from Campbell Lutyens.

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