Private equity transaction volumes are declining while secondary markets expand, according to Tikehau Capital co-founder Antoine Flamarion, who outlined the shift at the IPEM Global event in Paris.
Tikehau's own financial performance supports the market diagnosis. The firm doubled net profit in the first half of 2026 after growing assets under management to €52.8 billion by the second half of fiscal year 2025—up from €40 billion in February 2024. That expansion came while deal flow contracted, signaling a pivot from volume to margin and portfolio value realization.
The composition of new capital reveals the strategic realignment. In H2 FY2025, 80 percent of Tikehau's fundraising originated from new customers and markets outside France. This geographic diversification coincides with a deliberate emphasis on larger, higher-conviction transactions across Europe, Asia and North America—the infrastructure of a secondary-focused strategy.
In residential real estate, Tikehau has deployed co-investment vehicles in Spain and France to attract new capital partners, while characterizing retail real estate markets as "quite muted." The secondary play here is explicit: crystallizing value from existing stakes and funneling proceeds into co-investor structures that reduce principal capital requirement.
Tikehau's M&A activity reinforces this transition. The firm acquired Homunity, a real estate crowdfunding platform, in 2019, and co-founded Pegasus, a SPAC for financial services acquisitions, in 2021 alongside Financière Agache and banker Jean-Pierre Mustier. Both moves expand the firm's ability to source and exit positions outside traditional primary fundraising cycles.
The firm has built a 21-year international footprint: offices in London (2013), Singapore (2014), Brussels (2015), Milan and Seoul (2017), New York (2018), and later Tokyo, Luxembourg and Amsterdam. This infrastructure positions Tikehau to source secondary deals across geographies where primary transaction volumes are tightest.
Tikehau has faced recent headwinds. Mediapart reported an investigation into the firm following a controversial military company acquisition in November 2025. That same month, Temasek, a Singapore sovereign wealth fund, sold its stake.
During the H1 2026 results presentation, Flamarion, Deputy CEO Henri Marcoux and Group CFO Vincent Picot emphasized operating leverage and active portfolio value crystallization—metrics that track secondary realization and harvesting, not origination velocity.
