Europe's dedicated annual conference for the private equity secondaries market: 350+ senior practitioners, 120+ LPs, 160+ GPs, focused on GP-led transactions, continuation vehicles, and the full spectrum of secondary liquidity strategies.
SuperReturn Secondaries Europe is the principal annual gathering for the European private equity secondaries market, held each spring in London. Private equity secondaries are transactions in which existing LP interests or GP-assembled portfolios change hands before fund maturity, providing liquidity in an otherwise illiquid asset class. The conference addresses both sides of this market: LP-led sales of fund stakes and GP-led structures such as continuation vehicles, single-asset funds, and portfolio restructurings. It draws the specialist community that has grown up around this activity: dedicated secondary fund managers, institutional LP sellers, placement agents, and legal and financial advisors who structure the transactions.
The global secondaries market reached an estimated $160 billion in transaction volume in 2024, with GP-led transactions accounting for roughly half that figure and continuation vehicles representing 89% of GP-led volume. This scale -- built over roughly a decade from a niche LP liquidity tool into a structured sub-industry -- created demand for a venue where practitioners could discuss deal mechanics, pricing benchmarks, and fund governance questions that are simply too technical for generalist private equity conferences.
The European dimension adds further specificity. European secondaries activity is shaped by a distinct regulatory context (AIFMD, Solvency II capital charges for LP positions), a different LP base with significant public pension, insurance, and sovereign wealth representation, and a geography that spans mature markets in the UK and Germany through to newer fund markets in Southern and Eastern Europe. The pricing dynamics for European assets, the role of placement agents working with European LPs, and the governance expectations of European institutional sellers all differ materially from the US market that generated the early secondary playbook.
GP-led transactions -- where the GP proposes a restructuring or asset transfer rather than waiting for LP-driven market conditions -- have shifted the negotiating dynamic. LPs now face elections on continuation vehicle offers with short decision windows, limited independent valuation, and real conflicts of interest to navigate. This is exactly the kind of structurally complex issue that a specialist conference handles better than a sidebar conversation at a generalist event.
The 350+ delegate population breaks into two primary groups with distinct roles in the market. The 160+ GPs attending are predominantly dedicated secondary fund managers -- firms such as Ardian, HarbourVest Partners, Pantheon, and AlpInvest (Carlyle) -- who act as buyers of LP stakes and as counterparty investors in GP-led processes. A smaller GP contingent consists of buyout fund managers exploring or executing continuation vehicles on their own portfolios.
The 120+ LPs attending include some of the largest institutional sellers and co-decision-makers in the market: Temasek, Mubadala, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, CPP Investments, Bpifrance, and British Business Bank were among those confirmed for the 2026 edition. These institutions attend to understand secondary pricing for their own portfolios, to meet the buyers competing for their assets, and to navigate the increasingly frequent GP-led election situations in their fund books.
The remainder of the delegate community -- placement agents, legal counsel (with Weil Gotshal & Manges as 2026 lead sponsor), valuation advisors, and NAV lenders -- complete the transaction infrastructure. The chair for the 2026 main conference was Johanna Lottman and Brenlen Jinkens from PJT Park Hill, a placement advisory firm active in secondaries, which signals where in the market the event's centre of gravity sits.
The two-day programme combines plenary panels, data presentations, and structured networking formats including LP-only breakfasts (Chatham House Rule), a GP masterclass breakfast, champagne roundtable discussions on contested topics, and an evening drinks reception.
The 2026 Day 1 agenda covered the following themes, in order:
Champagne roundtables at the close of Day 1 addressed three contested questions: whether secondaries deserve standalone asset class status, how LP-GP relationships are being reshaped by GP-led activity, and where niche direct secondaries opportunities sit relative to portfolio deals. The 2026 keynote was Deborah Meaden, interviewed by Neil Callanan.
A GP-led secondary is a transaction initiated by the fund manager (GP) rather than by an LP seeking to sell its stake. The most common form is the continuation vehicle (CV): the GP proposes to transfer one or more portfolio companies into a new vehicle with a fresh investment period, allowing LPs to elect either to roll their existing interests into the new vehicle or to receive a cash exit. Single-asset CVs concentrate one high-conviction holding; multi-asset CVs transfer several positions simultaneously. GP-led transactions accounted for an estimated $115 billion in volume in 2025, representing roughly half the global secondary market.
Secondary fund managers act as the primary buyers at this conference: they acquire LP stakes in funds (in LP-led secondaries) or provide the investor capital for continuation vehicles (in GP-led transactions). LPs attend as current or prospective sellers of fund stakes, as well as to evaluate GP-led election decisions. Buyout GPs attend to learn how to structure CVs and to meet the secondary fund managers who would need to back such a transaction. The transaction support community -- legal, placement, valuation, and NAV lending -- rounds out the attendee base.
SuperReturn Secondaries Europe is produced by Informa Connect under the SuperReturn brand. The Secondaries Investor Forum is produced by PEI Group, publisher of the trade title Secondaries Investor. Both events target the same specialist community and compete directly for delegates and sponsors. Informa's event benefits from the broader SuperReturn franchise and its established LP network across the wider SuperReturn calendar. The choice between them typically reflects existing sponsor relationships and which LP networks each event has developed. A practitioner active in the market would likely attend both.
For professionals not directly active in secondary transactions -- fund managers with no near-term plans for a continuation vehicle, LPs with no secondary activity in their portfolios, or generalist advisors without secondaries deal flow -- the programme density around transaction mechanics offers limited practical return relative to a broader private equity conference. The event is specifically calibrated for deal-facing participants, not for those seeking general market orientation.
Informa Connect is the events and specialist publishing division of Informa PLC, a London-listed media and events company. The SuperReturn brand is Informa Connect's flagship private capital conference series, encompassing SuperReturn International (Berlin, the main generalist event for European private equity), SuperReturn Europe, SuperReturn Private Credit Europe, and SuperReturn Secondaries Europe. The series is among the best-attended in the private capital conference market globally, built on a three-decade history that began with the first SuperReturn conference in 1998.
SuperReturn Secondaries Europe was established to serve the growing secondaries specialist community as it outgrew the dedicated sessions that had been incorporated into SuperReturn International's programme. The event operates within Informa's broader LP engagement programme, which is why the LP attendance figure (120+) and the LP-free registration offer are central to the event's positioning with GP and advisor sponsors.
The secondaries market has grown large enough that its own conference season now has competitive tension: two serious events, two sets of sponsors, and enough practitioner demand to fill both. SuperReturn Secondaries Europe benefits from the Informa LP network and the SuperReturn brand's draw, but the more interesting story is what the conference's agenda reveals year to year -- the GP-led session titles in 2026 reflected a market working through alignment conflicts, valuation opacity, and the governance gaps that rapid growth has created. When the keynote is an entrepreneur from a TV programme and the substantive work happens in Chatham House breakfast rooms, the real conference is the one the public agenda does not show.
Registration for the 2027 edition is available through the official website. Informa Connect offers complimentary attendance to qualifying LPs, defined as professionals from pension funds, endowments, foundations, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, and similar institutional capital allocators. GP, advisor, and service provider attendees pay delegate fees; pricing is not publicly disclosed and is available on request.
For registration inquiries: gf-registrations@informa.com or +44 (0) 20 8052 2013. The LP qualification process is handled directly by the event team: sarah.donahue@informa.com.
Qualifying LPs -- from pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, family offices, foundations, and insurance companies -- attend at no charge. The complimentary LP programme is standard across the SuperReturn series and reflects the commercial dynamic of the market: GPs, advisors, and sponsors pay fees, while the LP presence is the core value proposition that draws them. LPs should contact the event team to confirm eligibility and receive their complimentary registration.
The 2026 edition was held at the Royal Lancaster London, a hotel adjacent to Hyde Park at the northern edge of Hyde Park Corner. The venue is a standard Informa Connect choice for mid-size financial conferences in London: central, with sufficient breakout capacity for the LP-only sessions, roundtables, and one-to-one meeting formats that the programme requires. The 2027 edition is also listed at the Royal Lancaster London.
| Official website | https://informaconnect.com/superreturn-secondaries-europe/ |
| Register | https://informaconnect.com/superreturn-secondaries-europe/ |
| Programme | https://informaconnect.com/superreturn-secondaries-europe/agenda/ |
| LP enquiries | sarah.donahue@informa.com |