Week 43 · 19–25 October 2026
Liquidity: private equity is inventing new exit routes
This week at a glance
Three developments converge: investment banks are exploring continuation funds with longer horizons; managers are selling minority stakes in assets held for several years; and Blackstone reports realization revenues down year on year. These developments do not by themselves prove a crisis in private equity. They show that the valuation of portfolios and their conversion into cash are two different realities. In parallel, oversight of investment in healthcare is advancing in France and in several US states.
Verified benchmarks from the reports supplied. The global secondaries market reached $121bn in the first half of 2026 (Evercore, cited by Pantheon), of which 53.7% were GP-led transactions. The unrealized value of buyout and growth funds was about $4,759bn at end-September 2025 (Preqin, cited by Pantheon). In the United States, $12.6bn was raised by continuation funds in the first half of 2026, up 126.2% year on year (Capstone). These measures cover distinct universes and must not be added together.
1 | Continuation funds: towards fifteen-year holding horizons?
Goldman Sachs and Evercore sound out the market on long-duration structures, as secondaries reach a new record.
According to Bloomberg (19 October), relayed by Private Equity Wire (20 October), Goldman Sachs and Evercore are discussing with managers and institutional investors continuation vehicles that would allow certain holdings to be kept for ten to fifteen years. Jefferies, Raymond James and Lazard are also reported to be looking at similar solutions. These are projects and market discussions, not a new standard already adopted. The label “evergreen” should be used with caution: a fixed fifteen-year term is not, in itself, a perpetual structure.
These arrangements could combine capital reserves to fund growth, new investors and partial-liquidity mechanisms. Their appeal is obvious for a manager who considers the sale of an asset premature; the difficulty is just as obvious for LPs, who must be able to assess the transfer valuation, their exit options, the fees and the possible crystallization of carried interest.
The figures. According to Evercore, cited in Pantheon’s October report, global secondaries volume reached $121bn in H1 2026, against $102bn in H1 2025. GP-led transactions represented 53.7% of first-half 2026 volume; this category is broader than continuation funds alone. Pantheon also indicates that GP-led transactions now represent about 15% of all private equity exits, against 8% in 2021: this proportion rests on calculations citing Jefferies and Dealogic, and should not be equated with the share of GP-led deals in the secondary market.
Capstone provides a complementary US perspective: continuation funds raised $12.6bn in H1 2026, up 126.2% year on year, with an average size of $1.3bn. Together with successor-fund raisings that follow a long interruption, they account for 88.5% of the increase in capital raised observed by Capstone, not 88.5% of total capital raised.
What this changes. The continuation fund is no longer only a cyclical response to the absence of exits. It may become a regular tool for managing holding periods. The decisive question is one of alignment: at what price is the asset transferred, who benefits from the extension, and on what terms does the LP obtain liquidity?
Sources: Bloomberg, 19 October 2026 (information relayed; full access not checked); Private Equity Wire, 20 October; Pantheon, State of the Market, October 2026, pp. 2, 3 and 6, citing Evercore, Jefferies and Dealogic; Capstone Partners, Capital Markets Update, Q2 2026, p. 3 (report supplied to the editorial team).
Going further: PE Research — Analysis 29: What is a continuation fund, and why is it so successful?
2 | Minority sales to create liquidity without giving up control
Longer holding periods are bringing mid-life co-investments to the fore.
In an analysis published on 19 October, PitchBook describes the rise of mid-life co-investment deals: a manager opens to co-investors a minority stake in a company it has already held for several years. The transaction provides a form of liquidity or financing without requiring a full sale of the company.
PitchBook counts 14,803 European companies held by funds in the third quarter of 2026, of which about 11% have been held for more than nine years. Its estimate that it would take more than eight years to clear the global inventory at the current pace of exits remains a projection dependent on its assumptions, not a foreseeable timeline for each company.
The article quotes Schroders Capital: about 30% of the core investments made by the fund concerned over the past three to four years reportedly involved mid-life deals, often struck at historical cost or at 1.1–1.2 times that cost. This comparison is not a measure of a discount to fair value: on its own, it says nothing about the asset’s economic performance since acquisition.
To manage asymmetries between historical shareholders and incoming ones, the parties may negotiate preferential rights or conditions governing the exit timetable. These protections depend on the contracts; they should not be presented as universal standards.
Read with care: the inventory. Pantheon cites, based on Bain & Company, about 32,000 unsold companies in private equity portfolios worldwide. Capstone counts more than 13,500 companies in the US inventory it tracked in Q2 2026 and a median holding period of 4.2 years for active buyouts in its sample. The universes and definitions differ: these figures cannot be added together and are not interchangeable estimates.
What this changes. These transactions create a negotiated price and partial liquidity, but do not necessarily replace a full exit. For LPs, the point of vigilance is the transparency of valuation and of the rights attached to different share classes.
Sources: PitchBook, Emily Lai, 19 October 2026 (some of the details cited depend on the journalistic article); Pantheon, October 2026, p. 4, citing Bain & Company; Capstone Partners, Capital Markets Update, Q2 2026, p. 3.
Going further: PE Research — Analysis 18: The time value in Private Equity (in French).
3 | Blackstone: lower realization revenues, fundraising still strong
Third-quarter results distinguish the dynamics of assets under management from those of exit revenues.
On 22 October Blackstone announced net realizations of $331.5m in Q3 2026, against $504.8m a year earlier, a decline of about 34%. In the private equity segment alone, the indicator stands at $194.1m, against $380.1m, or about −49%. Meanwhile, assets under management reached $1,368.3bn (+10% year on year), with $63.3bn of capital inflows in the quarter and about $1.6bn of fee-related earnings.
Accounting precision: net realizations are neither the amount of disposals nor distributions to LPs. Blackstone’s indicator combines realized performance revenues, after the corresponding compensation, and realized revenues on its own investments. For the group, the reconciliation is $464.4m − $185.5m + $52.6m = $331.5m. Gross realizations of the private equity segment, at $9.8bn for the quarter, are a different indicator and cannot be compared directly with the $194.1m.
According to Private Equity Wire, relaying Reuters, management expects a significant increase in net realizations in the fourth quarter. The 41% quarter-on-quarter decline in global M&A, attributed to LSEG in that coverage, is market context; it does not demonstrate the cause of the change in Blackstone’s revenues.
What this changes. Growth in assets and fees can coexist with lower monetization of investments over a given period. To assess the real liquidity of private equity, disposals, distributions to LPs and the performance revenues of management firms must be examined separately.
Sources: Blackstone, Q3 2026 results, Form 8-K, exhibit 99.1, 22 October; Private Equity Wire, 23 October (relaying Reuters and LSEG).
Going further: PE Research — Analysis 25: Private Equity 2026: market recovery or regime change? (in French).
4 | Healthcare: financialization under scrutiny in France and the United States
Catch-up from the previous week — two regulatory frameworks, one question about the independence of professionals.
On 13 October, the French government presented a ten-measure plan to curb the influence of financial investors in healthcare. The areas concerned include medical biology, imaging, pharmacies and other care activities. The measures announced include a doctrine interpreting existing law, an alert mechanism for professionals, greater transparency of capital links and an observatory of financialization.
Several measures are, at this stage, announcements, studies or draft texts: they should not be described as obligations already in force. Tax proposals and those concerning equipment authorizations in particular must be distinguished from positive law. The Imapole case, reported by the professional press, illustrates the attention paid to the rules on medical independence; its precise legal implications require reading the decision before any generalization.
In the United States, oversight operates largely at state level, with heterogeneous notification, transparency and transaction-review mechanisms. Stateline lists several legislative initiatives in 2025–2026. PitchBook, for its part, reports a decline in private equity transactions in physician-practice management. This coincidence is not enough to attribute the decline in transactions to regulation: financing conditions, valuations and the difficulties of certain platforms may also play a role.
What this changes. Regulatory risk is becoming a central variable in healthcare consolidation strategies. Analysis of an investment must factor in, beyond the capital structure, governance rights, the independence of practitioners and the diversity of local rules.
Sources: Le Quotidien du médecin, 14 October 2026 (in French); MoneyVox, 13 October (in French); Le Moniteur des pharmacies, 13 October (in French); Stateline, 25 August 2026; PitchBook, 23 October 2026. The detailed figures on US legislation and the precise provisions of the PLFSS (the French social security financing bill) require checking against the texts before republication.
Going further: PE Research — Analysis 8: US Private Equity Under Fire
PE Research reading | Liquidity, the new dividing line
GP-led transactions and minority sales respond to a real constraint: managers sometimes have to choose between extending value creation and returning capital to investors. But a secondary transaction does not mechanically create economic value; it first changes ownership of the asset, its financing and the allocation of risk and liquidity. The issue for LPs is therefore not only the volume of transactions, but the quality of prices, governance and the actual delivery of distributions.
Method and transparency. This review distinguishes primary data verified in the Pantheon and Capstone reports supplied to the editorial team, the third-party data they cite (Evercore, Preqin, Bain, Jefferies/Dealogic) and information reported by the press. Forecasts, planned structures and announced regulatory measures are presented as such. The Pantheon (“Private and Confidential”) and Capstone (“Internal Use”) reports are not reproduced; any further distribution must respect the applicable rights and conditions.
