Private Equity Insights
Secondary Market Discounts in DACH: Securing the Best Return on Non-Cyclical, Industrial, Life Science and Energy Portfolios
The global secondary market crossed USD 220 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach USD 250 billion in 2026 – nearly a ninefold expansion since 2013. For DACH sellers in Non-Cyclicals, Industrials, Life Sciences and Energy, deeper capital does not automatically mean tighter pricing. This article sets out what drives secondary discounts today, where DACH sector pricing sits, and how a structured process can compress the gap to NAV.
The state of play: a record year for secondaries, a selective year for pricing
Deeper capital does not mean uniform pricing. Secondary buyers in 2025 and 2026 are bidding with discipline. Sector, vintage, GP quality, concentration risk and funding level all get priced individually. Headline discounts to NAV on buyout secondaries have compressed from the 2022–2023 dislocation, but dispersion has widened: the highest-quality portfolios clear at or near NAV, while weaker tail-end exposures still trade at 15–30% discounts.
For DACH sellers the practical question is no longer whether to access the secondary market, but how to run a process that narrows the discount and delivers certainty of close.
Why DACH portfolios attract international buyers
DACH exposure is a premium currency in secondaries. Germany, Switzerland and Austria combine regulated institutional capital, deep Mittelstand corporate finance culture and the most active European Life Sciences and Industrial ecosystems outside North America. For international secondary buyers – North American multi-strategy funds, London-based dedicated secondary vehicles and sovereign LPs – DACH assets offer a distinctive combination of defensive cash-flow profiles in Non-Cyclicals and Healthcare; operational depth in Industrials and Clean-Tech; regulated, IP-rich Life Science portfolios with clear commercial pathways; and Energy transition and infrastructure exposure supported by EU policy.
This appetite has translated into regional allocation: Europe and multi-region mandates accounted for roughly 95% of capital raised in secondaries in 2025. DACH sits at the centre of that flow.
Where the discount comes from – and where it can be recovered
Secondary discounts are not a single number. They are the aggregate of several pricing components, most of which are negotiable or structurable. Understanding them is the first step to narrowing them.
Time value and hold period. Buyers discount the expected residual duration to exit. Shorter hold periods, clearer exit visibility and recent distributions all reduce the discount.
NAV staleness. If the last reported NAV is more than two quarters old, buyers reprice conservatively. Fresh valuations, audited financials and a clean due-diligence pack can claw back 200–400 basis points of discount.
GP quality and alignment. Top-quartile managers with strong reporting, recent realisations and continued alignment consistently price at or near NAV. Unknown or underperforming GPs drive the steepest haircuts.
Concentration and tail risk. Portfolios with a small number of distressed positions drag pricing across the whole book. Pre-sale structuring – unbundling, stapling, or running a mosaic process – recovers value that would otherwise be lost to a single-number bid.
Capital commitment risk. Unfunded commitments on partially drawn funds are priced conservatively. Sellers can mitigate this with deferred-payment structures or partial transfers.
Sector lens: where DACH pricing is tightest in 2026
Non-Cyclicals
Buyer appetite for consumer staples, food, beverage and defensive services remains firm but selective. Scale and clear margin defensibility are rewarded; sub-scale private positions trade wider. Chemical and packaging exposures are priced more cautiously as buyers watch input costs and regulation.
Industrials and specialty manufacturing
Investor sentiment toward industrials is mixed but constructive. Buyers remain willing to underwrite mid-market specialty manufacturing, automation and aerospace and defence exposures, where long-cycle contracts, secured backlogs and energy-transition relevance support clean pricing. DACH’s industrial base, and the Mittelstand in particular, is a natural home for this thesis.
Life Sciences
Healthcare-Technology and medtech attracted the strongest year-on-year appetite uplift in the latest secondary buyer survey, at approximately +20% YoY. Healthcare-Life Sciences – biotech, therapeutics, diagnostics – is priced more selectively: late-stage, derisked assets with near-term catalysts trade close to NAV, while earlier-stage portfolios require careful packaging to avoid a broad haircut. This is precisely the segment Breslin was built for: our origins as the Private Equity Investment Group for Life Sciences within Dresdner Allianz Bank in 1996 remain the foundation of our sector network.
Energy and Clean-Tech
Year-on-year buyer appetite for Energy and Energy Services rose by approximately +13% in the latest sector survey. DACH energy-transition assets – storage, grid infrastructure, industrial decarbonisation – attract strong international interest, particularly from North American buyers seeking European exposure. Pricing rewards assets with contracted revenue and regulatory tailwinds.
- Run a structured, intermediated process. A competitive auction – even among a short list of pre-qualified buyers – compresses discount more reliably than a bilateral negotiation. Our record of more than 80 closed secondary transactions shows that process discipline is the single largest determinant of final price.
- Prepare a defensible data room. Current NAVs, audited capital accounts, GP consents and clean legal chains. A well-prepared due-diligence pack, assembled in our preparation phase, is worth several points of headline price.
- Slice the portfolio intelligently. Not every position should be sold to the same buyer. Non-Cyclicals and Industrials may price best with a pan-European secondary fund; Life Sciences and Energy may attract specialist capital at tighter spreads. Tailored targeting criteria are central to our placement methodology.
- Structure for certainty, not just headline price. Deferred consideration, earn-outs on specific assets, and escrow mechanics can convert a weak indicative bid into a strong executable one. The aim is risk-adjusted net proceeds, not the highest non-binding number.
- Engage a buyer universe that extends beyond the obvious. With more than 600 buyers, strategic industrial partners and LPs in our network – spanning dedicated secondary funds, institutional LPs, family offices and corporate buyers across Zürich, London, Frankfurt and San Francisco – we consistently surface pricing that a domestic-only process would miss.
Since 1996, Breslin has closed more than USD 700 million in secondary transactions and more than USD 1.5 billion in aggregate private equity deals. We have delivered over 80 profitable exits and 20 IPOs for our clients, with more than 100 years of combined investment experience across our partners and advisors.
For DACH sellers in Non-Cyclicals, Industrials, Life Sciences and Energy, Breslin combines Swiss discretion, German industrial depth and a global buyer network. Our four-phase methodology – Preparation, Placement, Execution and Conclusion – is designed specifically to narrow the discount: rigorous portfolio evaluation, precise buyer targeting, negotiated terms and a clean close with escrowed funds.
Discounts in the secondary market are not a tax on selling. They are a reflection of how well the sale is prepared, positioned and run. With the right process, a DACH portfolio in the sectors we know best should trade far closer to its economic worth than a headline haircut would suggest.
Discuss a portfolio sale with Breslin
If you hold a DACH portfolio in Non-Cyclicals, Industrials, Life Sciences or Energy and are exploring a secondary sale, the Breslin team will run a confidential assessment – portfolio benchmarking, indicative discount ranges and a recommended process architecture – before any commitment.
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