Key Takeaways
- • Credit secondaries raised a record USD 16.7 billion in 2025, exceeding the combined total of the previous three years, according to With Intelligence (S&P Global).
- • Campbell Lutyens reports 38% of global investors are actively investing in private credit secondaries, a 10% increase versus 2025.
- • Allianz Global Investors argues recent private credit volatility stems from product design, investor behaviour and liquidity timing rather than deteriorating credit fundamentals, creating discounted entry points for secondary buyers.
- • AllianzGI says discount pricing is an active risk tool, with software-exposure risks reflected directly in purchase prices.
- • Secondaries Investor projects private credit secondaries deal volume could reach USD 80 billion by 2030.
Summary
Private credit secondaries are maturing into a core institutional allocation. According to the latest Private Credit outlook from data analyst platform With Intelligence (S&P Global), fundraising for credit secondaries reached a record USD 16.7 billion in 2025, more than the combined total of the previous three years. Allianz Global Investors (AllianzGI) expects the trend to continue and is building out its own private credit secondaries platform.
AllianzGI attributes the recent market attention to volatility across private credit, including liquidity dynamics in semi-liquid and wealth-channel vehicles, rising scrutiny of software exposure, and a normalisation of default levels from the benign post-Covid period. The firm argues these developments should be viewed in context. Redemption pressure and technical selling in wealth-channel vehicles, it says, have often been independent of underlying credit quality, creating purchase opportunities at attractive discounts for secondary buyers able to analyse assets in depth. AllianzGI describes the core of institutional private credit, sponsor-backed mid-market direct lending, as continuing to benefit from strong covenant packages, senior secured positions and active creditor control.
The firm cites a Campbell Lutyens Private Credit Market Report stating that 38% of global investors are actively investing in private credit secondaries, up 10% from 2025. Secondaries are increasingly used for portfolio management and liquidity by limited partners and general partners, and can offer seasoned portfolios, greater asset visibility and faster deployment than primary funds. AllianzGI says secondaries can also shorten the J-curve by entering mature portfolios at a discount. According to Secondaries Investor, annual private credit secondaries deal volume could reach USD 80 billion by 2030.
AllianzGI stresses selectivity on software exposure, conducting portfolio-level reviews and discussing disruption risks with originating GPs, with purchase discounts calibrated to compensate for potential losses. The firm also argues that a global mandate, with the US as the largest market and Europe as a growing source of opportunities, supports relative-value selection. The article is a promotional piece from AllianzGI, and its characterisations of market conditions reflect the firm's own view.
AllianzGI attributes the recent market attention to volatility across private credit, including liquidity dynamics in semi-liquid and wealth-channel vehicles, rising scrutiny of software exposure, and a normalisation of default levels from the benign post-Covid period. The firm argues these developments should be viewed in context. Redemption pressure and technical selling in wealth-channel vehicles, it says, have often been independent of underlying credit quality, creating purchase opportunities at attractive discounts for secondary buyers able to analyse assets in depth. AllianzGI describes the core of institutional private credit, sponsor-backed mid-market direct lending, as continuing to benefit from strong covenant packages, senior secured positions and active creditor control.
The firm cites a Campbell Lutyens Private Credit Market Report stating that 38% of global investors are actively investing in private credit secondaries, up 10% from 2025. Secondaries are increasingly used for portfolio management and liquidity by limited partners and general partners, and can offer seasoned portfolios, greater asset visibility and faster deployment than primary funds. AllianzGI says secondaries can also shorten the J-curve by entering mature portfolios at a discount. According to Secondaries Investor, annual private credit secondaries deal volume could reach USD 80 billion by 2030.
AllianzGI stresses selectivity on software exposure, conducting portfolio-level reviews and discussing disruption risks with originating GPs, with purchase discounts calibrated to compensate for potential losses. The firm also argues that a global mandate, with the US as the largest market and Europe as a growing source of opportunities, supports relative-value selection. The article is a promotional piece from AllianzGI, and its characterisations of market conditions reflect the firm's own view.
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