Completed transactions on the alternative investment secondary markets fell in 2020, down 27.7% from transaction volume the prior year, the latest Setter Capital Volume Report shows.
Total secondary market volume for 2020 dropped to $61.8 billion from a record-setting $85.4 billion in 2019, according to the report.
Private equity transaction volume fell 27.8% to $56.2 billion; real estate secondary transactions fell by 25.7% to $2.7 billion; infrastructure funds fell 40.4% to $2.1 billion; private debt fund secondaries dropped 79.7% to $638 million; and energy funds fell 87.2% to $226 million in the year ended Dec. 31 compared with the same period in 2019.
Two bright spots were hedge funds, which saw its volume increase 47.9% to $430 million, and agriculture/timber, which increased 97.3% to $330 million in the year ended Dec. 31.
A total of 1,376 transactions were completed in 2020, down 13.8% from the year-earlier period. The average transaction size was about $44.9 million, a 16.1% decrease. Setter's report said the drop in average deal size was driven largely by the drop in large-scale deals being completed in 2020.
For the year, leveraged buyout, venture capital, hedge funds, fund-of-fund and secondary fund managers sold the most on the alternative investment secondary market, accounting for 27.3% of all sellers, the report showed.
Pension plans were the next most active sellers with 26.7% of the volume in year ended Dec. 31.
The data are derived from a survey of 100 alternative investment secondary market buyers.
