Private Credit Secondaries Surge as Market Volatility Intensifies

The private credit secondaries market is experiencing unprecedented growth as recent market volatility drives institutional investors to seek new ways to manage their illiquid debt exposures.

Last week, Coller Capital acquired a $1.6 billion senior direct lending portfolio from U.S. insurer American National, marking one of the largest credit secondary transactions to date. The deal signals a major shift in how investors are responding to market turbulence triggered by President Trump’s recent tariff announcements.¹

“We are hearing more and more from people seeking liquidity,” said Greg Ciesielski of HarbourVest to Reuters. “This is going to be a real inflection point for private credit secondary activity.”¹

New York-based Pantheon recently raised $5.2 billion for a fund buying private credit stakes, with global head of private credit Rakesh Jain noting that secondary market opportunities were “among the most robust we have seen.”¹

The rapid growth comes as private credit itself has ballooned to approximately $1.5 trillion in assets under management, up from $1 trillion in 2020. Industry experts project further expansion to $2.6-2.8 trillion by 2028-2029.²³

While currently less than 1% of private credit assets trade annually in the secondary market (compared to 2-3% for private equity), Michael Schad of Coller Capital projects that the credit secondaries market will reach $50 billion within three years—a view shared by other industry leaders.⁴

Major financial institutions including Coller Capital, Ares Management, Apollo Global Management, Pantheon, and Tikehau Capital have all launched dedicated credit secondaries strategies to capitalize on this trend.⁴

For middle market lenders, the emerging secondaries market provides crucial flexibility to manage portfolio concentration and optimize capital deployment without waiting for loans to mature. This growing liquidity channel could help maintain consistent origination activity through market cycles, potentially benefiting borrowers who rely on non-bank lending sources.

With the private credit market continuing to expand and market volatility expected to persist through 2025, secondaries are poised to become an increasingly important component of the private credit ecosystem.

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