Perspectives on the private markets.

A short newsletter on fundraising dynamics, allocator behaviour, and structural trends across European and global private markets.

Fundraising

“Fundraising is down; but capital isn’t gone, it’s concentrated.”

Fundraising across European private markets remains challenging, but this is less about a lack of capital and more about its redistribution. LPs are consolidating commitments into fewer, larger, and more established managers…

…leaving many mid-market and emerging GPs competing harder for attention. In this environment, differentiation, access, and positioning matter more than ever. This is exactly where targeted investor engagement and strategic fundraising support become critical.

Secondaries

“Secondaries are no longer optional; they’re the plumbing of private markets.”

Secondaries have moved from a niche solution to a core mechanism for liquidity. With traditional exits still constrained, GPs and LPs alike are increasingly relying on continuation vehicles and secondary transactions…

…to manage portfolios. What was once opportunistic is now structural. For investors, this creates both a necessity and an opportunity: access to liquidity is no longer guaranteed, it must be actively engineered.

Exits

“Private equity is increasingly exiting… to itself.”

A growing share of exits now happens within the private markets ecosystem itself, particularly through GP-led secondaries. Assets are being rolled from one vehicle to another, often under the same sponsor…

A useful way to think about this is a Japanese bamboo fountain (shishi-odoshi). Water fills one segment, tips, flows forward, and then resets to begin again, not leaving the system, just moving through it in a controlled rhythm. Private equity is starting to behave in a similar way: capital and assets circulate within the same structure, periodically shifting from one “container” to another, but rarely exiting entirely.

This reflects a broader shift: private equity is becoming a longer-duration asset class, where ownership is continuously recycled and value is compounded over multiple cycles, rather than realised in a single, definitive exit.

Europe

“Europe is quietly becoming the relative value trade in global PE.”

As global investors reassess allocations, Europe is gaining attention as a relative value opportunity. Compared to the US, valuations remain more attractive, and macro stability has improved the region’s positioning…

This is driving increased international capital flows into European strategies, particularly in the mid-market and sector-specialist space. For GPs, this creates a window to attract new global LP relationships, provided they can effectively access and communicate with them.

News — 2026

Big strategic moves shaping 2026

2026 is already being defined by a wave of consolidation across private markets and wealth platforms. Most notably, EQT’s acquisition of Coller Capital highlights the scaling of secondaries into institutional mega-platforms…

At the same time, on the distribution side, US wealth manager Corient has agreed to acquire Stonehage Fleming and Stanhope Capital, creating a ~$430bn global wealth manager, with completion expected in 2026.

This is one of the largest transactions ever in the multi-family office space and signals a clear shift: US platforms are scaling aggressively into Europe to capture private markets distribution and ultra-high-net-worth capital.

Taken together, these moves point to a clear direction of travel: private markets are becoming more integrated, more global, and increasingly concentrated among scaled platforms.

Back to home