Uncharted No More: Liquidity Events in the Independent Sponsor Sector

Our 2025 Independent Sponsor Report highlights how independent sponsors are reshaping private equity not only in how they source and finance deals, but also in how they achieve exits. Independent sponsors today are navigating liquidity events with increasing sophistication, balancing flexibility in hold periods with the pursuit of strong investor returns. Drawing on insights from more than 170 professionals active in the sector, the Report examines the patterns, challenges, and opportunities surrounding liquidity events, revealing how firm maturity, market conditions, and sponsor strategy all shape the path to realizing value.

Liquidity Events

Forty-seven percent of independent sponsor survey respondents have had one liquidity event or more. Not surprisingly, older firms are more likely than their younger peers to have had liquidity events: 76% of older firms (those in existence six years or more) have had one or more liquidity event(s), whereas only 15% of younger firms (those in existence for five years or less) have had one or more liquidity event(s). Twenty-one percent of older firms have had five or more liquidity events.

Overall, this year, 53% of respondents have not had a liquidity event, which is an increase from last year when only 43% of respondents did not have a liquidity event. This increase may be explained by the fact that this year’s IS population was slightly less experienced than last year (only 31% of this year’s respondents have been in business for 10 years or more versus 40% of last year’s respondents).

As was the case in our 2024 Report, a small percentage of the oldest firms represented this year (16% of firms 10 years or older) have not yet had a liquidity event. “In a challenging exit environment such as this one, it’s not surprising that some independent sponsors are deciding to hold onto their investments,” noted Sylvie Gadant, managing partner of Citrin Cooperman’s Transaction Advisory Services Practice. “Independent sponsors have the luxury of not having to exit on a predetermined timeframe like their funded private equity counterparts, which is one of the benefits of the independent sponsor model.”

“In addition, a longer hold period can allow independent sponsors the time to fully realize their company’s potential for organic as well as add-on growth, thereby achieving the high investor returns that we are seeing from many of our IS respondents,” added Sylvie Gadant.