Net assets in unlisted closed end funds (unlisted CEFs) reached $129.7 billion at the end of 2023, up 15.6% from the prior year. Interval funds, with $72.9 billion in net assets accounted for 56% of unlisted CEF assets. Tender offer funds, with $56.8 billion, accounted for 44%.

The following chart shows the growth in unlisted CEF net assets over the past decade:

Nearly every year in the last decade has brough an increase in the number of active interval and tender offer funds.  As of the end of 2023 there were 94 active tender offer funds, and 91 active interval funds that reported assets with the SEC.  

Unlisted CEF Asset Concentration

Although there have been a lot of new entrants, assets in interval and tender offer funds continue to be highly concentrated. The ten largest unlisted CEFs account for 48% of total net assets in the sector.

The largest fund is Partners Group Private Equity. With $14.2 billion in net assets, Partners Group accounts for 11% of total unlisted CEF net assets, and 25% of tender offer fund net assets. Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund is the largest interval fund, with $13.9 billion in net assets. It accounts for 11% of all unlisted CEF net assets, and 19% of interval fund net assets.

The following table shows the ten largest unlisted CEFS as of the end of 2023:

Type	Fund	Strategy	Net Assets $billions	% of Unlisted CEF Assets	% of Interval Fund Assets	% of TO Fund Assets
Tender Offer	Partners Group Private Equity (Master Fund), LLC	Private Equity	$14.2	11.0%	NA	25.0%
Interval	Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund	Credit	$13.9	10.7%	19.1%	NA
Interval	ACAP Strategic Fund	Equity	$6.8	5.2%	9.3%	NA
Interval	Bluerock Total Income (plus) RE Fund	Real Estate	$5.8	4.5%	8.0%	NA
Interval	Griffin Institutional Access Real Estate Fund	Real Estate	$5.0	3.9%	6.9%	NA
Tender Offer	Ironwood Institutional Multi-Strategy Fund LLC	Fund of Hedge Funds	$4.9	3.8%	NA	8.6%
Interval	Versus Capital Real Assets Fund, LLC	Real Estate	$3.0	2.3%	4.2%	NA
Interval	Variant Alternative Income Fund	Credit	$3.0	2.3%	4.1%	NA
Interval	Cion Ares Diversified Credit Fund	Credit	$2.9	2.2%	3.9%	NA
Interval	PIMCO Flexible Credit Income Fund	Credit	$2.8	2.1%	3.8%	NA

This is an excerpt from Unlisted Closed End Funds: 2023 Year in Review. The full version of this report (along with all the underlying data) is available for download by Premium Plus Subscribers.

Other topics covered in the report include:

• Top interval fund and tender offer fund strategies;
• Secrets of the fastest growing unlisted CEFs;
• What pending fund registrations indicate about future market trends.

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