CVC’s new fund hits the hard cap above the 7 billion target and overtakes the 5.8 billion that raised for the previous vehicle. Carlo Pirzio-Biroli head the platform that has resources of 20 billion euros and now aims to invest in the secondary markets for credit and infrastructures
CVC Secondary Partners’ Secondary Opportunities Fund VI (SOF VI) attracted commitments worth 10 billion US Dollars (above the 7 billion US Dollars target) including parallel funds and accounts of the firm itself and its employees (1H26 results of CVC). In 2023, SOF V raised 5.8 billion US Dollars while in 2019, SOF IV attracted 2.7 billion. The platform has a total of 20 billion euros of assets under management (press release).
The fundraising involved over 200 institutional limited partners globally, including investors in previous funds and new subscribers; the latter accounted for approximately 50% of total commitments. SOF VI will continue to invest in the mid-market secondary private equity sector, focusing on buyout funds that selected general partners manage and maintaining the two-pronged strategy that already implemented with previous funds: on the one hand, LP-led transactions, i.e. the acquisition of portfolios of fund holdings that investors sell; on the other, GP-led transactions, including deals via continuation vehicles that the managers themselves launch.
CVC Annual Report 2025 said that since 2016, the global secondary market posted an annual growth rate of around 20% grace to drivers like the expansion of primary private equity, increasingly active portfolio management by LPs and, above all, the rise of continuation funds. For investors, secondaries also provide access to more mature portfolios and therefore offer greater visibility on the underlying assets compared with a primary investment.
Rob Lucas, the ceo of CVC, said: “This is a very positive result for CVC Secondary Partners, reflecting the strength of our investment team, our twenty-year track record in secondary markets and the confidence of our global base of institutional investors. The secondary market represents an important and growing component of CVC’s global private markets platform, with 20 billion euros of assets under management and significant prospects for further growth. With demand for secondary market solutions continuing to rise, CVC Secondary Partners can keep expanding its private equity-focused funds, whilst also developing its presence in more innovative and attractive adjacent segments, such as the secondary credit and infrastructure markets”.
Carlo Pirzio-Biroli, managing partner, is the head of CVC Secondary Partners, a platform born in 2017 after a spin-off from Deutsche Asset Management that the team rebranded as Glendower Capital (see here the timeline).
In 2021, Glendower has 60 workers, offices in London and New York, 8 billion US Dollars in commitments, and a track record of 130 closed deals out of more than 900 interests in funds.
In September 2021, CVC and Glendower announced a merger agreement (press release). CVC said in its listing filings that the group would acquire Glendower in three stages, starting with a 60% (closing on 11 January 2022), paid for through a combination of cash and instruments subsequently convertible into CVC equity (CVC IPO prospectus, paragraph 14.4.3).
However, the founders and management continued to run the platform independently. The combination enabled Glendower to utilise CVC’s global network, relationships with general partners and investor base, whilst allowing the buyer to add a new strategy to a business that until then focused primarily on private equity and debt.
In July 2023, Glendower closed Secondary Opportunities Fund V at its hard cap of 5.8 billion US dollars and attracted more than 230 new and existing LPs. SOF V also implemented the current balanced approach between LP-led portfolios and GP-led transactions (SOF V statement).
The integration completed in July 2024 as CVC acquired a 20% residual stake of Glendower Capital and rebranded it as CVC Secondary Partners (CVC press release).
In 2025, CVC Secondary Partners launched a credit secondaries strategy as volumes in the sector more than tripled between 2020 and 2024. At the time of its launch, the platform’s overall track record was already of over 200 transactions, more than 1800 fund investments and over 70 bespoke continuation vehicles (press release).
In 2026, CVC Secondary Partners, led Cerberus Capital Management’s continuation vehicle, worth approximately 2.3 billion US dollars, for SubCom, a US infrastructure for submarine fibre-optic cables operatori (press release). CVC also committed 1.1 billion US Dollars in M&G PE Secondary Fund 2025, a vehicle for acquiring a portfolio consisting mainly of North American mid-market buyout funds (press release). In early 2026, CVC also signed a strategic partnership with AIG for creating a seed portfolio for evergreen private equity secondaries aimed at expanding the platform’s reach beyond its traditional institutional user base (press release).
Pirzio-Biroli said: “We are grateful for the support of our existing investors and delighted to welcome many new investors to the platform through this fundraising round. The 10 billion US Dollars closing of our sixth Secondary Opportunities fund for private equity is a significant milestone as we continue our mission to be the partner of choice in the secondary market for LPs and GPs globally. We continue to operate in an attractive market environment, in which CVC’s global network and its deep expertise in private equity investments provide us with significant advantages. We look forward with confidence to deploying the remaining capital, whilst maintaining discipline and focus to capitalise on particularly attractive opportunities”.
CVC has 212 billion euros of assets under management for private equity, credit, infrastructures, and secondary markets.
