By their very definition, private market assets are not as easy to understand as publicly listed securities and investments. Private entities are not subject to the same requirements when it comes to making information about their operations public, and those investors that are able to conduct appropriate due diligence are usually institutions.
Aside from the large minimum investments required, the sheer scale of private markets means it is very difficult, if not impossible, for retail investors to achieve adequate diversification across all the sectors and sub-sectors in private markets – and that's if they can get access to an investment in the first place.
But there is no doubt that private markets can offer investors important diversification away from public markets, especially in volatile geopolitical periods.
Diversification benefits
One of the major differences between private and public markets is the huge dispersion of returns between investments and investment managers. What that means is the difference between the best-performing private market asset manager and the worst-performing is sometimes five times as much as the difference in performance in listed markets.
The dispersion in the private space can be thousands of basis points, whereas in the listed space the dispersion of returns typically would be closer to 100 basis points in fixed income and 200 basis points in equities.
Therefore, there are huge opportunities for investors to outperform. But equally, if they choose the wrong investment or managed fund, there is the chance that their investment could severely underperform.
A multi-strategy approach
What then is the best way to approach investing across the wide array of private markets that includes, but is not limited to, private credit, private equity, private real estate, private infrastructure, venture capital, and royalty funds?
Due to the diverse nature of each of these asset classes, and the potential for huge gains and huge losses, we argue that a multi-strategy, or fund-of-fund, approach can achieve the best results for retail and high-net-worth investors.
There are many reasons for this, not least of which is it enables investors to have access to specialised expertise in each asset space and not just broad knowledge across private markets as a whole.
To provide investors with enough diversification, a multi-manager operator needs to have scale. Scale can open doors to deals in private markets, and it can also provide negotiating power when it comes to fees.
To be able to conduct appropriate due diligence on each deal or manager, a multi-strategy operator also needs sufficient resources to complete that research and to maintain ongoing due diligence.
Because this information is not public, it takes time and resources to investigate companies and the people who work for them, which can include deep background research and reports into their qualifications and employment history.
Manager and investment profiles
Private equity buyout – 26North
To illustrate the type of due diligence, resourcing and specialist capability required to invest successfully in private assets, it is helpful to examine a private equity manager and its investment approach in more detail. One manager we favour in the private equity space, and which features within our funds, is 26North, a next-generation alternatives platform founded in 2022 by Josh Harris, co-founder of Apollo Global Management.
26North has built a fully integrated private markets platform spanning private equity, private credit and insurance asset classes, with approximately US$35 billion of assets under management and around 80 investment professionals as of December 2025. Their private equity strategy focuses on middle-market businesses with durable, defensive and mission-critical characteristics, where complexity or transition creates opportunities for disciplined, hands-on investors.
A defining feature of 26North’s private equity approach is its flexible, solutions-oriented underwriting philosophy. Rather than competing solely for traditional leveraged buyouts, the team targets a broad range of transaction structures, including corporate carveouts, opportunistic buyouts, structured equity and corporate partnerships. This flexibility allows 26North to tailor capital solutions to management teams and sellers while accessing transactions that are often less crowded and more idiosyncratic.
The private equity team is led by Mark Weinberg, former Managing Partner in Brookfield’s Private Equity Group, alongside a senior group of investors with backgrounds at leading global alternative managers. The team concentrates on sectors where it believes it has a clear competitive edge, including Industrials & Services, Financial & Business Services, and Technology, Media & Telecommunications, while retaining the ability to pursue opportunistic investments in deals where 26North has competitive edge.
What particularly differentiates 26North is the scale and depth of its Alpha Creation Team (ACT), a dedicated group that is fully embedded across the entire investment lifecycle. ACT supports sourcing, diligence and post-investment value creation, partnering closely with portfolio company management teams to drive operational excellence. Its capabilities span data-enabled tools, industry operational expertise across more than 30 industries, and a leveraged operating model designed to accelerate performance improvement and strategic execution.
26North’s integrated platform is reinforced by cross-asset class investment committees that facilitate knowledge-sharing between private equity, private credit and insurance teams. As a result, 26North is positioned to bring differentiated insights, sourcing channels and capital markets expertise to its private equity investments, particularly in complex or evolving market environments.
In April 2026, 26North announced the final close of its inaugural private equity fund at approximately US$5.9 billion, exceeding its original US$4 billion target. The fund’s early investments have spanned a diverse set of sectors including industrials, technology and services, reflecting the breadth of the firm’s sourcing network and its ability to execute across multiple transaction types.
Taken together, 26North’s emphasis on disciplined underwriting, structural flexibility and deep operational engagement exemplifies the type of specialist, well-resourced private equity platform that we believe is essential for generating attractive risk-adjusted returns in private markets.
Private credit – Canal Road Group
In the private credit space, it is important to invest with a firm that offers decades of experience but is also differentiated from many of its peers. Canal Road checks those boxes.
The firm has a vintage advantage over most of its peers. The average loan life in Canal Road’s fund, from underwrite, is about nine months. The firm had the benefit of starting investment post (i) interest rate increases, (ii) persistent inflation, (iii) the current US administration, and (iv) the widespread introduction of LLMs. The negative press hanging over the private credit market is predominantly related to loans underwritten in the 2019-early 2022 window. Loans underwritten in this window that remain outstanding are becoming more difficult (or expensive) to refinance before maturity over the next 12-24 months.
Canal Road is giving equity in its holding company (the same equity the team owns) to Limited Partners (“LPs”) committed to the current fund. Management believes this, and each team member’s investment in the fund, best align interests between LP and the General Partner. The firm believes the equity will generate meaningful annualised alpha above the returns generated by the underlying fund investment.
The Canal Road team is the same team that built CBAM Partners from US$0 to over US$15 billion in AUM and sold it to Carlyle for US$800 million in 2022. Both CBAM and Canal Road were founded by Don Young and Mike Damaso, who have close to 60 years of combined experience in the credit markets. The team of 14 employees that started Canal Road with Don and Mike held the same positions at CBAM as they do at Canal Road. All 16 of the firm’s initial team hold equity, just as they were at CBAM. The current fund is the 25th investment vehicle that the team has collectively worked on since the founding of CBAM.
While the firm has a focus on private credit today, it is expected that it will launch new initiatives in the coming 12-24 months in CLOs, structured products and other offerings in the corporate credit universe.
Looking ahead
Current geopolitical volatility is understandably making investors nervous, but it is just as important as ever to have appropriate diversification across all asset classes. While private markets historically have been difficult for individual investors to access, today they can gain good exposure to this space through a multi-strategy approach offered by a manager with the resources to carefully vet each manager and actively monitor their allocations and performance.
Marc-André Lewis is the Chief Investment Officer of CI Global Asset Management, a fund manager partner of GSFM, a Firstlinks sponsor. This article is provided as a general source of information and should not be considered personal, legal, accounting, tax or investment advice, or construed as an endorsement or recommendation of any entity or security discussed. Every effort has been made to ensure that the material contained in this document is accurate at the time of publication. Individuals should seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding any particular investment.
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