The latest mergers, acquisitions and other corporate actions in the wealth management sector.

Aquilius Investment Partners, which provides secondaries investment solutions in Asia, has completed the fundraising of its second real estate flagship fund, AIP Secondary Fund II.

The Singapore-headquartered firm, founded in 2021, said investors including family offices, sovereign wealth funds and pension funds put money into the new entity. AIP SF II was “significantly oversubscribed at the hard cap” and closed on $750 million in capital commitments. This beat its original $700 million target. In aggregate, the firm has raised $1.1 billion in capital commitments across its flagship fund and associated vehicles.

AIP SF II has exposure to “new economy” sectors supported by structural tailwinds including logistics, life sciences, data centres, hospitality and living. AIP SF II has already deployed about half of total commitments across eight secondaries transactions.

“Secondaries” are pre-existing investments in private equity, credit, venture capital, real estate, infrastructure and related areas. Investors may sell their stakes earlier than they had planned – for example, to raise money they need or to switch into a different investment. Either way, secondaries also give investors in what are otherwise relatively illiquid assets a channel for moving money around. They are part of the lubricant of the market. Firms such as Coller Capital say they are an important risk diversifier in the private markets area.

"We are actively capitalising on a generational buying opportunity for secondaries in Asia,” Bastian Wolff, founding partner at Aquilius, said. “This milestone fundraise is a testament to our strong track record and highlights the continued and growing appetite for Asian real estate secondaries investments among LPs, as market volatility and the need for liquidity drives deal volume to record highs.”

Aquilius was founded by Bastian Wolff (former managing director and head of Asia-Pacific Real Estate for Partners Group) and Christian Keiber (former MD for The Blackstone Group).

Based on private market investments with vintage years (when a fund was initiated) from 2004 to 2023, Coller Capital, recently citing data from research firm Preqin, said that secondaries' returns came highest of any private market type, at almost 16 per cent for median net internal rate of return, and at a standard deviation of net IRR at 15 per cent, with only private debt at a lower standard deviation, at around 10 per cent. The firm also said that secondaries have a relatively low risk of capital loss, at 1 per cent, versus venture capital at the highest, at 24 per cent.