Key Takeaways
- • Strategic Partners has agreed to buy CalPERS's roughly $3bn private equity portfolio, according to the story headline reported by PEI Secondaries Investor, marking a major LP-led secondaries transaction for the California public pension.
- • CalPERS shopped the $3bn PE portfolio in August 2025 as part of an effort to reconfigure its private equity programme, with bids due that month and closing expected by end-September 2025.
- • The sale reflects a broader wave of large pension portfolio disposals in 2025, including Ardian's purchase of an APG portfolio, New Jersey's exploration of a $1bn-plus sale, and Orange County's planned secondaries sales.
Summary
Strategic Partners has bought a portfolio of roughly $3bn from the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), according to the headline of a PEI Secondaries Investor update. The full article could not be retrieved, so the deal terms, pricing, and buyer details beyond the headline are not confirmed here.
The transaction follows CalPERS's August 2025 process to sell a $3bn private equity portfolio as it works to reconfigure its programme. Per PEI Secondaries Investor's coverage from 14 August 2025, bids were due that week, with the expectation that the process would close by end-September 2025.
The sale sits within a broader trend of large institutional LPs using the secondaries market to rebalance private markets exposure in 2025. Coverage in the same period reported that Ardian, with a $30bn war chest, emerged as a buyer of a large portfolio shopped by APG, the €590bn Dutch pension manager. Other LPs have also explored sales, including New Jersey, which considered a $1bn-plus secondaries sale, and Orange County, California, which plans to reduce fund-of-funds exposure through both GP-led and LP-led secondaries sales.
Market context from July 2025 indicated record activity, with Evercore reporting secondaries volume surpassing $100bn in the first half and Jefferies reporting available secondaries capital reaching a record $302bn.
The transaction follows CalPERS's August 2025 process to sell a $3bn private equity portfolio as it works to reconfigure its programme. Per PEI Secondaries Investor's coverage from 14 August 2025, bids were due that week, with the expectation that the process would close by end-September 2025.
The sale sits within a broader trend of large institutional LPs using the secondaries market to rebalance private markets exposure in 2025. Coverage in the same period reported that Ardian, with a $30bn war chest, emerged as a buyer of a large portfolio shopped by APG, the €590bn Dutch pension manager. Other LPs have also explored sales, including New Jersey, which considered a $1bn-plus secondaries sale, and Orange County, California, which plans to reduce fund-of-funds exposure through both GP-led and LP-led secondaries sales.
Market context from July 2025 indicated record activity, with Evercore reporting secondaries volume surpassing $100bn in the first half and Jefferies reporting available secondaries capital reaching a record $302bn.
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