CVC Just Closed a $10B Secondaries Fund After Targeting Only $7B

CVC just closed a $10B secondaries fund.

But it was only trying to raise $7B...

CVC Secondary Partners closed Secondary Opportunities Fund VI on September 3rd - the biggest secondaries vehicle in the firm's history and the largest raised by a European manager this year.

- Final close: $10B, against a $7B target
- Fund V (2023): $5.8B
- Fund IV (2019): $2.7B
- 200+ institutional LPs committed
- Half the capital came from new investors
- Already at $9.3B by mid-year

The money isn't chasing returns.

It's chasing liquidity.

Exits have stalled, distributions have dried up, and LPs are sitting on stakes they can't turn into cash.

Carlo Pirzio-Biroli, who runs the platform, points to "several trillions of capital trapped in unsold private equity holdings" as the opportunity.

Yet, the track record isn't flashy.

Based on CVC’s own June 2026 “Secondaries Deep Dive” deck, the program‑level weighted average net IRR across SOF I–V is about 17%.

- SOF I (22%)
- SOF II (16%)
- SOF III (8%)
- SOF IV (14%)
- SOF V (21%)

One fund did 8%, and they still raised $10B.

That tells you LPs aren't buying performance here.

They're buying an exit.

Secondaries used to be where you went when something went wrong. Now it's where the exit happens.

Are secondaries the new exit market?