We talk to a Europe-based investment group about its focus on the perpetual, or evergreen fund model.

Wealth managers will remember 2025 for various developments and one of them might be the increasing prominence of “evergreen” funds for playing the private markets. 

Evergreen funds, also known as perpetual funds, are structures that don’t come with the drawdowns, capital calls, exit deadlines and other traditional features of private market entities. 

There are no free lunches in capitalism, however, so evergreen funds raise questions. For example, as this publication heard recently, if redemptions rise, how does the fund satisfy departing investors without becoming a "forced seller" or degrading the quality of assets left for remaining investors? 

On the other hand, precisely because they appear not to have some of the complexities of traditional private market funds, evergreens are an attractive route into the space for those who haven’t entered before. 

Most affluent investors are not classed as professional investors, and that means the evergreen approach has a lot of appeal, Luc Maruenda, head of Wealth Solutions, Eurazeo, a European investment firm, told WealthBriefing in a recent interview. “When you invest in an evergreen fund, your cash is at work from day one,” he said. 

Family offices are fans of this model, Maruenda said. “They like the concept that we offer. Some have little experience [of private markets] and want exposure.”

Family offices in closed-ended funds have found waiting for capital calls frustrating, he said. 

The firm, listed on the Euronext bourse in Paris, has launched two evergreen solutions: private credit and a private equity secondaries fund. The private credit fund is an ELTIF fund, which is starting with €100 million ($1.18 million) of seed investment. 

Eurazeo has been working in the evergreen fund space since 2018, so it is far from being a novice (the sector has become more visible in the past two years). It now oversees about €3 billion in evergreen fund strategies. Its wealth solutions platform has about €5.0 billion in assets under management. The business has 13 offices worldwide, more than 400 employees, and its funds invest in a total of 600 portfolio companies.

The wealth solutions group works with more than 25 “blue-chip” partners such as SwissLife, UBS, Societe Generale, Allianz, AXA, BNP Paribas, HSBC and Natixis.

Maruenda has been involved in the organisation for 25 years. The business, which initially looked after the financial affairs of wealthy families, is based in France. In total, it has about €36.1 billion of assets. (Divided by asset type, about €25 billion is in private equity; €9 billion in private debt and €2 billion in real assets, such as property and infrastructure.) Eurazeo also works with third-party investors, including institutions, as well as private clients. 

The private wealth business mostly covers France, Belgium, Netherland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the UK. 

The organisation targets mid-sized European corporates. About 40 per cent of all investments are in France.

While there has been considerable talk about the need for wealth managers to increase private market exposure, the private wealth client is typically “vastly under-allocated” to this area, Maruenda said. On average, institutional investors put an average of 10 per cent of all assets into private equity; private investors allocate less than 1 per cent, he said, referring to industry figures. 

The opportunity and the challenge
Individual investors account for about $2.7 trillion, or one-fifth, of the $14 trillion in private market assets under management, according to Morgan Stanley. This is projected to rise to 37 per cent within five years.

Private markets have been a hot trend, although some industry figures fret about hype. In the decade after the 2008 financial crash, ultra-low interest rates crushed yields on government bonds and listed equities, making private equity, venture capital and private credit more attractive by comparison. On the supply side, more firms are staying private, and not listing on stock markets, and a number are reverting to private hands. These forces have combined to make this area significant. These assets are typically less liquid than listed equities and bonds, with the promise – other things being equal – of paying superior returns to compensate for that illiquidity. However, there are concerns that the area is becoming overheated. See more commentary here and here.

Not all that hot 
Maruenda dissents from the idea that the sector is running hot. 

Private market valuations are “not that high” and there are more opportunities on the buying side, Maruenda said. 

There have been digestion problems – the spike in interest rates after the pandemic and market volatility has lengthened the time investors have had to wait before exiting a fund. This blockage partly explains why large firms such as Carlyle and Blackstone have built private wealth offerings, tapping clients into different areas from traditional sources such as pension funds and insurance schemes.

“We don’t see too many exits and hopefully it will be more fluid in 2026. More funds are extending durations…this is also a good time to buy into secondaries. You have a lot of time to do very good acquisitions,” Maruenda said.