AXA Investment Managers has agreed to acquire W Capital Management LLC (also known as W Capital Partners or ‘WCP’), a US-based private equity firm specialising in GP-led and direct secondary investments.

WCP will sit within AXA IM Prime (‘Prime’), AXA IM’s fully integrated provider of investment solutions across private markets, including private equity, private debt, infrastructure and hedge funds.

Founded in 2001, W Capital Partners has been a pioneer in providing secondary market liquidity solutions to private equity General Partners (‘GPs’).

With this transaction, AXA IM said it affirms its ambition to further diversify its private markets offering in the growing and evolving private equity secondaries sector, which has seen more than $85bn raised and $111bn of transaction volumes in 20231 .

Additionally, AXA IM Prime will strengthen its presence in North America, including the US, which is one of the most important regions for secondaries investing, and WCP will benefit from additional exposure and deal flow in the US and globally.

Alongside the acquisition, relying on the WCP team's established investment track record, AXA has committed $200 million to WCP's secondaries investment strategy.

Marco Morelli, executive chairman of AXA IM, said: “We are delighted to join forces with W Capital Partners, which is well-established in the US and known for its strong expertise. It is a unique opportunity to provide our clients with access to new sources of value creation while scaling WCP’s platform.”

Pascal Christory, chief executive officer of AXA IM Prime, added: “This acquisition is another significant step for AXA IM Prime. Our vision since launching in 2022 is to be a leading global full-service capital solutions provider to GPs in the rapidly growing private markets.

"We had identified GP-led and direct secondaries as a key strategy for our portfolio of private equity products and had been looking for an approach that would combine the right levels of creativity, valuation skills and structuring expertise. We found the perfect partner in W Capital Partners and are excited about this new alliance, which will bring differentiated and high value investment strategies for our clients”.

David Wachter, managing partner and co-founder of W Capital Partners, said: “We are thrilled to be joining AXA IM Prime. As a pioneer in GP-led and direct secondaries, this partnership will allow us to deliver, at a larger scale, the relationships and structuring expertise we have worked hard to develop for our GP partners and our investors. With a common culture and vision, we look forward to working closely with the Prime team to provide a range of solutions in our rapidly growing and highly innovative market.”

The completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to take place in the course of Q2 2024.