Isio has launched a new platform to enable investors, including pension schemes, to sell illiquid assets more efficiently.

The launch of the new platform, Isio Fund Liquidity Options (IFLO), was driven by “significant demand” Isio has seen from pension schemes to sell illiquid assets, combined with the difficulties sellers face doing so in a timely manner and at a good price.

In particular, Isio said that a desire to sell illiquid assets has increased following the market volatility caused by the Budget in September 2022, with pension schemes seeking greater liquidity, to rebalance strategic asset allocation, or to prepare for an insurance transaction.

However, it argued that while typically, clients have used brokers to sell illiquid assets, that process is inefficient in nascent markets such as private debt and infrastructure equity secondaries.

Isio’s platform is therefore designed to provide a better alternative in these markets by leveraging the firm's direct relationships with private debt and infrastructure equity secondaries buyers, to enable schemes to find buyers and execute sales in a more efficient manner, with lower fees compared to other options in the market.

Isio said that it is also exploring other ways of obtaining liquidity for schemes outside of outright sales.

Commenting on the launch, Isio head of asset class and manager research, Ajith Balan Nair, said: “Private markets asset classes have provided excellent sources of alternative income and growth for pension scheme investors in recent years, but the fallout of the LDI crisis and being closer to the endgame is prompting many of them to sell.

“Unfortunately, this is often easier said than done, and the process for exiting illiquid assets can be slow and expensive.

“We have launched IFLO to provide a more efficient way to complete transactions.

“We hope to grow the platform over time to provide effective solutions for the buyers and sellers of illiquid assets across the institutional marketplace.”

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