Pantheon's listed trust has put up $40m (€28.1m) in a secondary transaction alongside “clients” of the private equity fund of funds.

The proprietary secondary transaction comprises 25 buyout funds in the US, Europe and Asia, with over 400 underlying companies. It is expected to be nearly 80 per cent funded on closing of the deal at the end of this month. 

While specific details of the assets have not been disclosed, a source confirmed in January that Pantheon was looking to close a deal with banking giant Citigroup for positions in funds managed by CVC Capital Partners. 

Although that transaction was marked at a hefty $500m, way above $40m, Pantheon is likely to have made a large co-investment alongside its listed trust, Pantheon International Participations (PIP), in the transaction disclosed today.

PIP announced in March that it is pursuing a secondaries-focused strategy, reflecting the positive sentiment over the private equity secondary market and the flurry of activity seen since the bid-ask-spread narrowed from 2010 onwards. 

“Although there are uncertainties in the global economy, we anticipate that the maturity and diversity of our assets will be helpful in underpinning the company’s strengthening cash flow, enabling us soon to resume the secondary investment programme,” said Andrew Lebus, a partner at Pantheon, at the time. 

Since its last NAV announcement for the quarter ended 31 March, PIP's cash balances have increased from £16m to £42m in the two months to May 31 2011. The portfolio has a weighted average fund age of approximately six and a half years and is therefore in a phase of returning distributions. 

The secondary market saw one of its biggest deals on record earlier this month when Axa Private Equity took $1.7bn worth of fund stakes off Citi, a sale motivated by a clampdown on Wall Street by the Obama administration.