Evolving General Partner Stakes Market Brings Opportunities

The past decade has seen a rapid increase in the number of managers who have raised funds to invest in other private capital managers, referred to as general partner, or GP, stakes.

This article was first published in October 2025 by Law360.

According to McKinsey & Co.'s recent Global Private Markets Report 2025, 43% of the limited partners, or LPs, they surveyed invest in GP stakes funds. Much like net asset value financing's that borrow at fund level secured against the fund's investments and continuation funds that sell assets from one fund to another fund managed by the same manager, selling an interest to a GP stakes fund is now a well-established strategy for private capital managers. Whereas previously managers might have seen a sale to a strategic buyer or an initial public offering as the principal means of realising capital value that they had created in their business — if they sought to realise that value at all, rather than pass it on to the