SecondMarket brings together buyers and sellers in the largest centralized, independent marketplace and auction platform for illiquid assets. SecondMarket's 10,000+ participants manage over $1 trillion in investable assets and include global financial institutions, hedge funds, private equity firms, corporations and high net worth individuals.
Whether you are a buyer, a seller or simply curious, please explore our site to learn more and sign up for FREE access to trading, data, and analytics.
Auction-rate securities are long-term securities issued by closed end funds, student loan lenders, and municipalities. They were originally sold as liquid, short-term investments until the traditional secondary market began failing in February 2008. SecondMarket has emerged as the secondary market for the remaining $200 billion in ARS, enabling sellers to achieve liquidity while providing buyers the opportunity to invest in solid long-term instruments that provide superior yields.
Most unsecured claimholders, which hold receivables and other debt against bankrupt companies, must potentially wait years through the formal bankruptcy process before receiving final payment on what they are owed. SecondMarket provides the marketplace through which creditors can monetize their claims now while providing buyers the opportunity to tap into a historically inefficient, decentralized asset class.
Due to the insolvency and financial instability of the traditional large dealers, virtually no secondary trading market exists for collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) - leaving buyers and sellers nowhere to turn. SecondMarket leverages its technology, existing market participants, and Ecosystem of third-party information and service providers to create a centralized, transparent marketplace for buying and selling CDOs.
Capital allocation to private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds, as well as funds of funds, has increased rapidly over the past decade. As limited partners in these funds reclaim capital and rebalance their portfolios they are looking to sell their holdings. Thus SecondMarket has created a secondary market enabling sellers to move their illiquid positions, providing buyers with unique investment opportunities, and enabling funds to shift their ownership into the hands of long-term LPs.
CMBS and RMBS issued by the private sector, now representing over $3 trillion in securities, have come under significant pressure not only from the downturn in housing prices and the fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis but also from uncertainly surrounding regulatory proposals and their potential impact on mortgages. SecondMarket has leveraged its technology and deep buyer base, adding MBS data and analytical tools to centralize price discovery and trading in CMBS as well as RMBS backed by prime, subprime, Alt-A, Adjustable rate mortgages and home equity loans.
Asset-backed securities (ABS) are debt obligations that are backed by the cash flows from specified pools of underlying assets.
SecondMarket's ABS secondary market facilitates transactions primarily in auto loans, credit card receivables, student loans and home equity loans. In addition to these more standard ABS, SecondMarket also provides a platform for buyers and sellers of more unique ABS, such as those backed by equipment leases/loans, aircraft leases, trade receivables, timeshare receivables and manufactured housing loans.
Whether the private company that you manage or have a stake in is awaiting an IPO or other liquidity event, or management would like the company to remain private, SecondMarket's Private Company Market can help you.
Through SecondMarket, private companies have the ability to opt-in to an organized and controlled private marketplace environment, with the ability to communicate with both existing shareholders and potential new investors from SecondMarket's market participants.
SecondMarket has been facilitating transactions in restricted securities since its founding in 2004. Restricted securities include restricted stock, warrants, and convertible debt that are generally issued by public companies, which are not registered with the SEC or are otherwise restricted. Recently SecondMarket has added block trading in small capitalization companies to its marketplace, enabling investors to quickly trade positions that might otherwise take weeks to buy or sell.
Due to the continued distress of financial institutions, as well as a desire to continue to de-lever, there has been a substantial increase in the need for these institutions to sell their whole loans. As a result, SecondMarket has opened up its marketplace to enable the buying and selling of individual and portfolios of residential and commercial mortgages and a wide variety of other consumer, commercial and construction loan types.
In the coming months, SecondMarket will leverage its expertise in illiquid assets to launch markets for some of the largest asset classes in the world. With our extensive buyer and seller network and by providing access to robust data and analytics, and our advanced auction platform, we will bring efficiency, transparency and opportunity to these markets. If you have an idea for a market that you do not see listed, please feel free to let us know.
