On a recent podcast, Andrea Echberg, global head of Pantheon's infrastructure team, discussed the rapid evolution of the infra secondaries market. She characterized the segment as transitioning from a niche strategy to a core allocation for investors, driven by record investor appetite for liquidity and portfolio management solutions.

Echberg provided a candid assessment of continuation funds, outlining the "good, the bad and the ugly" of these vehicles. While they offer existing limited partners extended hold periods and new buyers entry points at potentially attractive valuations, she highlighted concerns around alignment of interest, pricing transparency, and the potential for conflict when general partners effectively sell assets to themselves.

The conversation underscored a broader market shift: secondary transactions are no longer distress-driven but are increasingly used proactively for portfolio rebalancing. As fundraising sputters — with H1 figures showing muted activity — secondaries provide a critical pressure valve. Pantheon's perspective signals that sophisticated allocators now view the secondary market as a permanent, strategic component of infrastructure investing rather than an opportunistic add-on.