Partners Group closes a fourth direct infra program north of $15 billion — on the same day survey data has LP sellers clearing at 87 cents. One of those numbers has a reference date. Guess which. This is Infrastructure Secondaries Daily. GPs are raising at scale, their own LPs are cashing out at a discount — and we're asking who that $15 billion serves first. Follow the show and the next briefing lands in your feed on its own. Angel Investors Network writes:
When a limited partner, an LP, decides to sell its stake in that fund before the fund winds down, it doesn't sell at NAV. It sells at whatever a buyer will pay, and buyers almost never pay full price. In 2025 they paid 87 cents on the dollar on average, across a market that moved $240 billion in volume, up 48% year over year, per Jefferies.
Here's the number that stops me: 87 cents on the dollar, on average, across $240 billion in volume, in Jefferies' 2025 data. Venture sellers cleared 78. So the market moved half again as much paper as the year before — and sellers still ate a discount. And note what that 87 is — a 2025 survey figure. Fine as a framework, but it's a full-year 2025 vintage being carried into a 2026 conversation. If the H1 numbers have moved, the aggregate's already stale. Right, and the aggregate hides who's selling. That 13-point gap on buyout, 22 on venture — that's a real cost, and it hits hardest for the LP who couldn't wait for the next distribution. The piece is at least clean on one thing: NAV is part appraisal, part judgment call. Cash in hand and the reported mark are two different numbers, and the survey is the closest thing this market has to an arbiter between them. Part appraisal, part judgment. The GP sets the judgment, and the buyer's discount is the market's vote on how much of it to trust. Les Echos Comfi writes:
Partners Group, one of the largest firms in the global private markets industry, has held the final close of its fourth direct infrastructure program ("the Program") at over USD 15 billion. The Program, which includes a closed-ended fund as well as bespoke solutions that invest alongside, is more than 50% larger than the previous vintage.
Partners Group closes number four at over $15 billion, more than 50% bigger than the last vintage. And they lead with a top-quartile realized track record — 2.2x, 20.8% net IRR across 21 exits. Here's what sits wrong with me. We just walked through LPs clearing out below NAV in that explainer, and on the same morning a GP is closing at scale on the strength of marks nobody outside the firm has verified. The $15 billion serves the GP's franchise first. The realized numbers I'll grant — 21 exits, that's cash, that's real. But look at the seed portfolio: over 40% committed across 11 assets, and there's not a single entry multiple or as-of mark on the wire. And here's the loop. A primary close like this sets the NAV benchmark that secondaries buyers price against 18 to 36 months from now. The opacity starts at the entry point now, not downstream. Zak Bentley, over at Infrastructure Investor, has the details. ECP VI — targeted $5 billion, hard cap of $7.5, and now, with $7 billion in the door, the LPs let the cap move up to $7.8 so they can land near $8. That's the first live LP consent vote we've had in the rundown all week. And it's a same-side vote — LPs backing a bigger fund they're already committed to. The signal is momentum, not a fight. Sure. But consent lives in the paperwork, not the vibe. Did those LPs get the revised terms with enough runway to actually read them, or was it a signature by Friday? On a cap bump I'll usually give it a pass — nobody's getting cornered on an upsize. Here's my read from our seat: a direct infra fund closing at scale says the primary market is still absorbing capital. That tightens the urgency premium — fewer forced LP sellers, so the LP-led discounts we walked through earlier stay closer to that 87-cent average than the deep marks. Right up until one of those pensions needs liquidity. A fund closing at $8 billion tells me appetite's fine. It tells me nothing about what these assets got marked at going in — same missing entry price, bigger number. Angel Investors Network writes:
A NAV loan is a line of credit that a private equity fund borrows against the current value of the companies it already owns, not against the money its investors still owe. The market has grown to roughly $100 billion as of 2024 and could hit $600-700 billion by 2030, according to ILPA's July 2024 guidance citing the Fund Finance Association.
Here's the number I didn't have all week: roughly $100 billion in NAV loans outstanding as of 2024, and ILPA, citing the Fund Finance Association, says $600 to $700 billion by 2030. That's a six- or sevenfold run in six years, on debt secured against portfolio values the GP marks itself. Nobody outside the fund is checking that collateral. And the ILPA guidance is July 2024 — that's the date that makes the projection citable instead of a talking point. Say the date, or it turns into a marketing sentence. What I like about the explainer is it draws the line cleanly: sub lines borrow against the promise to pay, NAV loans borrow against the portfolio. Same instinct to smooth cash flow, totally different thing you're pledging. And it lands the same day as the LP-led piece we just hit — funds clearing out below NAV while the fund itself borrows against that same NAV. The mark sets the seller's discount and the lender's collateral. If you track private-market valuations, try SpaceX IPO Watch. It covers SpaceX valuation, stock news, and investor analysis daily — a sharp companion for following the numbers before the ticker exists. Find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
You’ll find links to every story we covered today in the show notes. If something deserves a closer read, that’s the place to pick it up.
That’s Infrastructure Secondaries Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.