The pioneer of S funds has been sold.

A landmark event unfolds —

Leading European private equity giant EQT recently announced that it has completed the acquisition of Coller Capital, with a base transaction consideration of 3.2 billion US dollars (approximately 21 billion RMB).

Founded in 1990, Coller Capital is one of the earliest and largest private equity secondary market (S Fund) institutions globally. After the merger, it will be renamed "Coller EQT" and continue to focus on LP-led and GP-led S transactions. This marks a new chapter in the 36-year legendary history of the S Fund sector.

S Funds Are Booming, The 21-Billion-Yuan Megamerger Is Completed

In the S Fund ecosystem, Coller Capital is an indispensable player.

In 1990, Jeremy Coller, who had previously worked at Fidelity Fund and pension institutions, keenly identified the liquidity gap in private equity shareholdings, which led to the establishment of Coller Capital. At that time, there were only a handful of funds in the market focusing on S transactions. Jeremy Coller raised its first flagship S fund, Coller International Partners I, whose core business was to acquire illiquid private equity LP shares held by pension funds and insurance institutions.

A milestone arrived in July 1998 — Jeremy Coller acquired the alternative asset portfolio of Shell's US pension fund for 265 million US dollars in only two and a half weeks, which became a landmark case in the global S market and brought Coller Capital widespread fame overnight.

Over the following 30-plus years, the institution expanded continuously, broadening its business boundaries: extending from traditional LP share transfer to complex asset portfolio divestment and GP-led continuation fund transactions, and laying out the private credit secondary market after the financial crisis, forming a diversified business landscape covering both private equity secondary and private credit secondary segments.

Coller Capital is also highly active in the Chinese market. In 2021, it became the first foreign-funded S fund manager to set up a presence in Beijing, launching its RMB S fund business; in 2023, it launched China's first RMB S fund raised by a foreign institution, and completed the first RMB-denominated GP-led transaction with Legend Capital; in 2025, it completed another GP-led private secondary market transaction with GSR Ventures, covering eight high-growth assets in China's consumer and technology sectors, with Coller acting as the sole lead investor.

Over more than 30 years of development, Coller Capital has built one of the largest dedicated private secondary market investment teams in the industry, with offices in London, New York, Hong Kong, Beijing and Seoul, and its current assets under management have reached 55 billion US dollars.

Until EQT entered the picture. According to the transaction disclosure, EQT has acquired 100% equity of the management company under Coller Capital, as well as the GP entity that holds control over Coller Capital's funds, and obtained a 10% carried interest stake in Coller Capital's latest flagship private equity secondary market fund, Coller International Partners IX.

The base transaction consideration is 3.2 billion US dollars. Meanwhile, a maximum contingent consideration of 500 million US dollars, paid in cash, is set based on Coller Capital's business performance in the 12-month period ending and including March 2029. Some core management members of Coller Capital are expected to receive approximately 64% of the contingent consideration, and have committed to reinvest the net proceeds from their obtained contingent consideration into EQT's ordinary shares.

A new investment platform, Coller EQT, is thus established, which will operate as a brand new "private secondary market" business segment, standing alongside EQT's existing private capital, infrastructure and real estate business segments. Jeremy Coller is appointed as the Head and Chief Investment Officer of Coller EQT, and will join EQT's Executive Committee, while Coller EQT will maintain its independence and rigor in project development and investment processes.

The Bellwether

In recent years, EQT has left a deep impression on its peers.

Backed by the financially powerful Swedish Wallenberg family, EQT was founded in 1994 by Sweden's Investor AB. It established its Asian private equity team three years later, and set up its Hong Kong, China office in 2006. In 2019, EQT was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, and made expanding its footprint in the Asian market a core strategic goal.

Over the past years, this leading European PE giant has left numerous footprints in China — EQT has participated in projects including Laobaixing Pharmacy, WallShine Wallpaper, China Zhengxin, Suixingpay, Pam Medical and Sinotherapeutics.

Looking back at its growth path, it can be regarded as an industry merger and acquisition history. The most representative case took place in 2022, when EQT announced the completion of the 100% acquisition of Baring Private Equity Asia, creating the largest merger and acquisition deal in the history of the private equity industry at that time. Following this epic merger, a new mega investment platform targeting Asia, BPEA EQT, was established. With this move, EQT expanded its footprint across the pan-Asian investment market, not only scaling up its asset size, but also achieving regional expansion.

At this moment, the global private market is undergoing subtle evolution. Institutional LPs' demand for liquidity is growing increasingly strong, making the S Fund market extremely vibrant. Statistics show that the global private secondary market transaction volume exceeded 120 billion US dollars in the first half of 2026, hitting an all-time high for the same period.

EQT has witnessed this trend, as Jean Eric Salata, Chairman of EQT Group, recently shared: "Nowadays, trillions of dollars of private equity assets are accessible through the secondary market, enabling investors to gain relevant investment exposure without relying solely on primary fund investments. Over time, the secondary market will play a more critical role in investors' asset allocation for the private market."

To fill the gap of the fastest-growing S transaction segment, Coller Capital is regarded as the best possible partner. After the merger, EQT's total assets under management will rise to approximately 389 billion US dollars. It is worth noting that EQT plans to double Coller Capital's fee-earning assets under management within four years.

This acquisition also reflects the platform-based development trend of overseas PE firms.

Merger and integration, collaborative cooperation, and business line extension are becoming the core expansion methods for top global PE institutions. Examples include CVC's acquisition of Glendower Capital, Ares' acquisition of Landmark Partners, BlackRock's acquisition of GIP, as well as EQT's inclusion of Baring Private Equity Asia and Coller Capital into its portfolio.

All these developments point to a clear trajectory: after overseas PE firms enter the mature stage, they do not fall into involution due to stagnant growth, but achieve strategic expansion through more proactive and diversified approaches, which not only enhances their own strength, but also drives the virtuous cycle of the entire alternative investment market.

This trend is of great reference significance for China's private equity market.

With the growing demand for LP share transfers and GP continuation fund transactions, it is inevitable for VC/PE institutions to move towards integration and specialized division of labor. By then, the rules of the game in the private equity investment market will also change accordingly —

The players that remain at the table will no longer be institutions that only conduct single primary market investments, but comprehensive platforms that can provide investment, exit and liquidity solutions at the same time.

This article is from the WeChat official account "M&A Frontline", written by Zhou Jiali, and published with authorization from 36Kr.