Strategic View: In Q2’s largest secondaries deal, CalPERS has sold a $3 billion portfolio of “tail-end” LP stakes. The deal was not won by a single buyer, but by a “mosaic club deal” of five specialized secondary firms. This structure allowed the club to “carve up” the portfolio, maximizing price and providing CalPERS with a full exit.
Full story: The secondaries market just proved its sophistication. CalPERS, the giant US pension fund, needed to clean its books. It put a complex $3 billion portfolio of “tail-end”* LP stakes on the market. But in 2025’s capital-constrained environment, no single buyer had the risk appetite or mandate for the entire, diverse portfolio.
Enter the “mosaic club deal.” Instead of one winner, a club of five specialized secondaries buyers won the bid. This group, reportedly including players like Lexington Partners, Ardian, and HarbourVest, formed a syndicate. This structure was the only way the deal could get done at the seller’s target price.
Here is how it worked. Each member of the club “carved up” the assets. The venture-focused buyer took the high-risk, high-return VC fund stakes. The European specialists took the mid-market LBO stakes. The credit specialist took the private debt fund stakes. This allowed each buyer to bid aggressively on the assets they knew best, rather than discounting the whole pool.
This deal is a landmark. It moves the secondaries market from a simple “buy-and-sell” function to a complex, multi-party M&A-style execution. For LPs, it’s a miracle: they get full, clean liquidity. For buyers, it’s a smart way to deploy capital with precision. This is the new, high-finance end-game for portfolio management.
*Tail-end: Fund stakes from older “vintages” (e.g., 2010-2015) that are near the end of their life.
Summary: The $3B CalPERS “mosaic club deal” is a game-changer for the secondaries market. It matters because it proves that complex, multi-billion-dollar LP portfolios can now be sold not to a single buyer, but to a sophisticated club of specialists, unlocking massive liquidity for institutional investors.
Source: Secondaries Investor
