Screen for fit
Assess mandate, concentration, sector and factor exposures, liquidity, and the role of the opportunity before full diligence.
Co-investments
Selective participation. Independent conviction.
A co-investment can offer focused exposure alongside a sponsor, but concentration and compressed timelines demand a standard of review that remains independent of the invitation.
The client need
Access is the beginning of diligence, not its conclusion.
Co-investments place more capital behind fewer underlying outcomes. They can also arrive with less time, a sponsor-led information set, and portfolio implications that are easy to overlook when the individual company is compelling.
A useful process must answer two separate questions: is this an attractive investment on its own terms, and does it improve the portfolio that will own it?
Our method
A focused review without a reduced standard.
Underwrite independently
Rebuild the business case, valuation, capital structure, downside, and exit case rather than relying solely on sponsor materials.
Evaluate the partner
Review relevant experience, ownership priorities, governance behaviour, economics, and alignment across possible outcomes.
Prepare for ownership
Establish information rights, monitoring expectations, decision responsibilities, and the conditions requiring escalation.
Areas of focus
Where concentrated judgment is required.
Buyout co-investments
Control transactions evaluated through business quality, leverage, ownership priorities, sponsor alignment, and a realistic exit path.
Growth opportunities
Minority or expansion investments for which market adoption, unit economics, governance rights, and future funding needs can be tested.
Credit co-investments
Direct lending or structured opportunities assessed through repayment, documentation, priority, and recovery value.
Real-asset partnerships
Single assets or platforms considered through operating complexity, contracts, financing, duration, and portfolio concentration.
Decision principles
Concentration requires a higher bar.
Declining is a valid outcome
Relationship value does not depend on participating in every opportunity a partner presents.
Economics are considered in full
Fees, carry, information rights, governance, and adverse-selection risk are evaluated together.
Portfolio fit is explicit
The review accounts for overlapping exposures, liquidity needs, commitment pacing, and the cost of lost flexibility.
The ownership plan starts early
Monitoring and escalation expectations are set before capital is committed, not after circumstances deteriorate.
Related paths
One opportunity, two perspectives.
For institutions
Consider co-investment pacing and concentration within an institutional private-market programme.
For institutionsFor private clients
Place direct opportunities within family liquidity, governance, and whole-portfolio constraints.
For private clientsRelated thinking
Perspectives for the decisions ahead.
Ideas from across our advisory and investment platform.
Private markets after the reset: the return of selectivity
A durable framework for assessing private markets after repricing, with selectivity, capital structure and operating evidence back at the centre.
Read perspective
Why vintage diversification still matters
Why commitment timing remains a distinct private-market exposure, and how pacing, liquidity and strategy interact across a long-horizon programme.
Read perspectiveCo-investments
Share the opportunity and the portfolio context.
A useful introduction includes the sponsor, transaction, timing, information available, and intended role of the capital.
Contact the institutional team