CPP Investments offloads $2.9bn private equity portfolio to Blackstone and Ardian

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has completed the sale of 33 limited partnership fund interests to Blackstone Strategic Partners and Ardian.

Net proceeds for the Canadian pension giant came in at approximately C$4bn ($2.9bn), after costs and adjustments.

The portfolio spans roughly two decades of fund commitments.

The two buyers represent considerable firepower in the secondaries market. Blackstone Strategic Partners, the firm’s dedicated secondaries arm, manages $100bn across secondaries, co-investments, primary advisory, and GP stakes, positioning it as a global leader in illiquid fund investing.

Ardian, meanwhile, oversees or advises $200bn for more than 1,920 clients across private equity, real assets, and credit.

Tom Kapsimalis, Managing Director and Head of Secondaries at CPP Investments, framed the move as routine balance-sheet hygiene. “This transaction was undertaken as part of our active portfolio management activities,” he said. “As a systematic buyer and seller in the secondaries market, this sale provided an attractive opportunity to optimize our exposure and supports disciplined capital allocation across our portfolio as we manage the CPP Fund in the best interest of CPP contributors and beneficiaries.”

The transaction lands amid an unusually active secondaries cycle, with large LPs increasingly turning to the market to rebalance allocations and free up liquidity as distributions from primary funds remain subdued.

Pension funds in particular have leaned on secondaries sales to manage denominator effects and fine-tune vintage exposure, and CPP Investments, which closed 2025 with a C$780.7bn ($568bn) fund, has been among the most active institutional players on both sides of the trade.

Neither Blackstone Strategic Partners nor Ardian disclosed the split of interests acquired between them.