On Tuesday, May 27, the Comptroller issued the followowing release:
New York, NY — New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and trustees of the five public pension systems announced the successful completion of a landmark $5 billion private equity secondary sale across the City’s systems today. This transaction, initiated in December 2024 and finalized this month, represents one of the nation’s largest ever pension-led secondary sales.
The following news clip provides a little more detail:
Blackstone’s Strategic Partners has acquired a $5bn private equity portfolio from the New York City Retirement Systems, marking one of the largest secondary transactions ever completed by a US public pension, according to Bloomberg. The transaction includes approximately 450 limited partnership interests across 125 funds managed by 75 general partners. According to a statement from the NYC Comptroller’s Office, the sale forms part of a strategic portfolio realignment rather than a liquidity-driven divestment.
The formal auction, which launched in December 2024, attracted over 80 secondary market participants. Evercore acted as financial advisor, with Morgan Lewis providing legal counsel. While financial terms were not disclosed, secondary transactions of this scale are typically completed at a discount to NAV, reflecting the complexity and illiquidity of mature fund stakes.
The deal comes amid a surge in secondary market activity as institutional investors seek to rebalance private equity allocations amid slower M&A and IPO exits, higher interest rates, and limited distributions. The NYC Retirement Systems’ private equity returns have underperformed national peers, with fiscal year 2024 gains of 4–5%, compared to 10.9% at CalPERS and 8.6% at CalSTRS.
With over $270bn in AUM across five pension funds serving teachers, civil employees, firefighters, police, and education workers, the NYC Retirement Systems’ sale signals a potential re-evaluation of long-term private market exposure.
Blackstone’s Strategic Partners, which has raised over $67bn across asset classes, continues to cement its position as one of the largest players in the secondaries market.
According to the June 30, 2024 NYC annual financial statement, the five city pension funds allegedly had $67.2 billion in alternative investments.
The big question is how much of loss did the pension funds absorb because of the sale. The Comptroller has not given any accounting details.
