M&A Science Live - The Discount Is the Wrong Question: A Secondaries Primer for Buy-Side Practitioners
Most buy-side teams approach secondaries by asking the wrong first question. The discount is an output, not a signal. Richard Chow, Partner at PJT Partners, has been on every side of this market: LP, direct buyer, portfolio manager at Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and advisor. He knows where buyers get into trouble and what doing this well actually looks like.
We'll cover LP interests, continuation vehicles, direct company secondaries, and when corp dev practitioners should be thinking about secondaries at all.
Live Q&A at the end, bring your deal questions.
What You'll Learn
Why the discount is the wrong first question and what to ask instead when evaluating a secondary opportunity
How to distinguish the three main transaction types: LP interests, continuation vehicles, and direct company secondaries
How to identify when a continuation vehicle is driven by asset conviction versus fee motive, and why that distinction changes your diligence
Why secondary market volume data is almost always wrong and what the opacity problem means for buyers trying to understand the market
When corp dev practitioners should use secondaries as a tool and what conditions make it the right move
How complex cap tables with minority stakes and legacy LP positions affect diligence on a target
Who Should Attend
Corp dev leaders, strategy and ops teams supporting M&A, PE operators, and executives building or scaling an acquisition function who want to engage secondary markets with more operational confidence.
Speaker Bios
Kison Patel – Founder, M&A Science | Chairman, DealRoom
Kison built DealRoom to ~$10M ARR and has led M&A execution across hundreds of transactions. He founded M&A Science to extract and share the patterns strong buyers use to win deals, turning practitioner experience into searchable, reusable intelligence.
Richard Chow - Partner at PJT Partners
Richard advises GPs and LPs on structuring liquidity solutions across the secondary market. Before PJT, he managed private equity and real assets portfolios at Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds. He has operated as an LP, a direct buyer, and a portfolio manager, giving him a perspective on secondaries that most practitioners on any single side of the table don't have. His argument that the standard buyer framing around discount-to-NAV is the wrong starting point is not contrarian for its own sake, it comes from watching that anchor lead to bad decisions across a career spent in the work.
Member Access
M&A Science members get:
Full session recording access inside the Membership library
Session takeaways (key insights organized for practitioners)
Access to the broader M&A Science member library (plays, templates, and real-world frameworks)
If you want access: Become an M&A Scientist. Join the community of the best practitioners in M&A.
→ Membership: $1995/year → mascience.com/membership
FAQs
Will this session be recorded?
Yes. The recording will be available in DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, for members. Non-members can register to attend live.
What if I can't attend live?
Register anyway. The recording will be available through DealPilot. DealPilot members get access before public release.
What is DealPilot, powered by M&A Science?
DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, is the deal guidance layer for buy-side teams — practitioner-built playbooks, frameworks, certification programs, and primary source intelligence from 400+ practitioners who have actually run the deals. $1995/year at mascience.com/membership.