Introduction
Sovereign wealth funds sold more than three-quarters as much through LP-led secondaries in the first half of 2026 as in all of 2025, on Campbell Lutyens' figures: 20% of $54 billion, or about $11 billion, in six months, against $14 billion for the whole prior year. Pensions sold $15 billion, against $23 billion a year earlier. Total first-half LP-led volume sat between $54 billion and $56 billion in the three surveys that split sellers, close to a year earlier, so what changed is which limited partners (LPs) sold and why. The seller base is where a private capital advisory (PCA) desk finds its next mandate, and it rotated faster than volume: sovereigns up, pensions and insurers down, fund-of-funds winding down older vehicles, endowments at the end of a low-tax window.
Seller Mix in the First Half, Survey by Survey
Each review uses its own categories and base, so each column stands alone. Evercore's first-half 2026 review measures transaction volume (purchase price plus unfunded commitments) and labels only its sovereign shares. Jefferies groups pensions with sovereigns, and Campbell Lutyens' first-half 2026 report counts insurers inside financial institutions.
| Seller group | Evercore, H1 2026 (2025) | Jefferies, H1 2026 | Campbell Lutyens, 1H 2026 (FY2025) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | % of LP-led volume, $56bn | % of LP volume, $56bn | % of LP-led value, $54bn |
| Pensions | Public: largest group, share up; corporate: down | 48%, with sovereigns | 28% (29%): public 21%, corporate 7% |
| Sovereign wealth funds | 21% (12%) | Inside the 48% | 20% (12%) |
| Fund-of-funds and asset managers | Little changed | Fund-of-funds and secondary funds 27% | Asset managers 21% (17%) |
| Endowments and foundations | Slightly lower | 16% | 10% (11%) |
| Insurers and financial institutions | Insurance down | Financial institutions 4% | 12% (14%), insurers 5% |
Three readings hold on every rulebook. Sovereign wealth funds reached about a fifth of volume wherever shown separately. Pensions remain the largest source of supply, alone or with sovereigns. And insurers sold less: 5% in Campbell Lutyens' count against 10% for 2025.
Why LPs Sold: Liquidity Before Rebalancing
The motive did not change with the mix. Jefferies' July 2026 review sorts LP sellers, by count rather than volume, into four needs:
- Generating liquidity: 45% of sellers.
- Winding down older vehicles and cleaning up mature positions: 26%.
- Rebalancing away from overallocation: 16%.
- Reducing non-core strategies and managers: 13%.
Liquidity leads because cash is scarce: the distribution yield ran at roughly a tenth of NAV in Jefferies' first-half count, less than half its long-run pace, the gauge explained in where the secondaries market stands. Overallocation, the trigger of 2022, now ranks third, and Jefferies also saw LPs trimming large co-investment positions to lock in gains.
How they sold matters too. Evercore found 88% of LP-led volume ran through an advisor-led, multi-bidder process, and read falling insurance and corporate pension sales as less balance-sheet cleanup, more active portfolio management. A seller repositioning a portfolio wants pricing tension, not just a buyer.
The Groups That Moved
Sovereign Wealth Funds: Scale and Reweighting
Evercore credits the rise from 12% to 21% to large, repeat sellers. Campbell Lutyens explains it by scale: as their portfolios have grown, sovereigns use secondaries as a portfolio-management tool rather than a liquidity solution, reallocating across managers, asset classes and geographies. Its 2025 report had counted an 18-fold rise in sovereign selling dollars, with mega-sized portfolios from Asia and the Middle East as political uncertainty intensified.
- Sovereign Wealth Fund
A state-owned fund that invests national savings or reserves for long-term returns. Answering to a government owner rather than beneficiaries with payment dates, it can sell fund interests to reallocate rather than to raise cash.
The pipeline continued: Korea Investment Corporation (KIC), South Korea's sovereign fund, was reported in September 2026 to be exploring a sale of more than $1 billion of private equity stakes with PJT Partners advising, according to DealStreetAsia, citing Bloomberg. The scale that makes sovereigns major buyers, traced in how sovereign funds deploy capital, makes them large sellers when they rebalance.
Pensions: Largest Group, Smaller Sales
Pensions sold less without losing their place. Campbell Lutyens has them as the largest cohort at 28%, yet their $15 billion of sales was 35% below a year earlier, which it puts down to a more normal allocation environment and a weaker denominator effect, the mechanism explained in LP portfolio construction. Evercore's chart differs for public pensions, whose share grew, while corporate pensions fell.
Fund-of-Funds and Legacy Vehicles
Jefferies' wind-down motive and its fund-of-funds and secondary funds group, 27% of volume, point to the same activity: managers liquidating legacy vehicles near the end of their terms. Campbell Lutyens has asset managers rising to 21% of LP-led value from 17%, and maturing fund-of-funds interests rising to 7% of volume sold from 3%. Such liquidations skew toward older vintages, its 2025 report noted, supply dated by fund terms and priced as in tail-end portfolios and fund wind-downs.
Asia-Pacific and EMEA Sellers
Geography moved too. Evercore has sellers from Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) rising to 31% of LP-led volume from 24%. Campbell Lutyens has Asia-Pacific sellers at 12% of LP-led value, normalizing from a record 18% in 2025, when outsized sellers acted on regulatory and liquidity pressures, including on sovereigns and on insurers in Taiwan. What an Asian seller holds matters more than where it sits: buyers price Asian fund exposure deep, as LP-led pricing trends by strategy shows, and mostly take it alongside Western exposure.
Endowments After the Low-Tax Window
Endowments made the 2025 headlines: Harvard sold about $1 billion of fund stakes to Lexington Partners and Yale selected buyers for a portfolio reported at $2.5 billion to $3 billion, as who sells fund interests and why describes, under the budget pressure set out in why LPs and GPs need liquidity. The first-half surveys disagree on what followed: Jefferies has endowments and foundations at 16%, as a year earlier and above 12% for 2025; Campbell Lutyens has them at 10% on lower dollars; Evercore's bar is slightly shorter than its 12% for 2025.
- Endowment Excise Tax
A US federal tax on the net investment income of private colleges and universities with at least 3,000 tuition-paying students and large endowments per student. For tax years beginning after December 31, 2025, the rate is 1.4%, 4% or 8% by endowment per student, replacing a flat 1.4%.
What the Higher Rate Changes
The rate applies by tax year, and many universities run July fiscal years: Yale's 2024-2025 financial report says its rate rises from 1.4% to 8% beginning July 1, 2026. For such an endowment, gains realized through June 30, 2026 fell in the last tax year at the old rate, so no survey yet shows endowment selling under the new rates. Jefferies had tied part of 2025's endowment selling to anticipated tax-policy changes.
That symmetry is the point. While the higher rate stands, selling no longer saves tax against holding, so the rate-timing motive is spent. The cash need remains, since the tax is paid from the pool that funds budgets and capital calls. Endowment selling is likelier to follow liquidity and portfolio shape, as pension selling does, than a deadline.
What the Shifting Base Means for an Advisor
New names keep arriving. In Jefferies' January 2026 review, about 60% of LPs that sold in 2025 were repeat sellers, and first-time sellers made up 40% of participants. A repeat seller judges its advisor against the last sale; a first-time seller needs the sale built from governance up, from approvals and portfolio selection to general partner (GP) consents, the sequence in the LP portfolio sale process.
Each group sets different terms for process design:
- Sovereign wealth funds: large multi-manager books, confidentiality, and reallocation goals suited to partial or structured sales.
- Pensions: board calendars, public disclosure, and volume that tracks overallocation.
- Fund-of-funds: fund-term deadlines and older, tail-heavy interests.
- Endowments: cash needs rather than tax timing, and manager relationships to protect.
A coverage list ranked by 2024 selling would have put public pensions first and sovereigns, then 2% of Evercore's LP-led volume, near the bottom, and would have missed the two in five sellers new to the market. The seller base is less a ranking than a rotation, and the institutions an advisor most needs to know are often those that have not yet sold.
