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MeltX, a pioneering platform designed to facilitate the sale of illiquid fund holdings, has officially launched to unlock liquidity in the UK’s £1 trillion+ pension sector. MeltX enables pension funds, insurers, and advisers to efficiently sell illiquid fund positions through a transparent, centralised bidding platform, helping to address a significant barrier to pension fund buyouts.

 The problem: Illiquid holdings hindering ability to buyout

 With over £500 billion of UK pension funds expected to buyout with an insurer over the next decade, many face the problem of legacy private markets holdings hindering their ability to transact. Current options for managing these illiquid holdings are limited, creating challenges for pension fund trustees and their advisers to evidence they are getting best value for the members they serve. MeltX directly confronts this issue through providing a transparent and efficient online auction for these holdings.

The solution: MeltX

MeltX offers:

● Expanded market access: A centralised online platform connecting a broader range of buyers with attractive secondary opportunities.
● Transparent process: A structured, two-stage bidding process built around quarterly auctions, ensuring fairness and efficiency.
● Streamlined execution: Collaboration with leading legal firms to reduce complexity and expedite deal completion.

 The MeltX team: Combining pensions, secondaries and legal expertise

Oliver Jaegemann and Stuart Hanson founded the firm in response to a problem they observed affecting pension funds, their advisors and asset managers.  Using their combined 35 years of experience with UK pension schemes and other institutional investors, they started developing the solution helped by expertise from:.

● Pensions Experts: The MeltX Advisory Group consists of influential investment consultants and independent trustees representing the majority of the UK defined benefit pension fund market.
● Secondaries Experts: A number of senior individuals from a leading global secondaries advisory firm are helping the founders shape the business, bringing a wealth of market knowledge.
● Legal Experts: Willkie Farr & Gallagher has been supporting the development of MeltX’s processes, leveraging the firm’s extensive expertise and systems capability in the secondaries market.

Stuart Hanson, Co-Founder at MeltX. “I’m delighted to have launched MeltX with Oliver, whose experience makes him the ideal partner to build and scale a platform like this. Our collaborative approach to building MeltX, including bringing together an Advisory Group of key stakeholders in the UK pensions market, makes me confident that our solution will lead to an improved experience for both buyers and sellers of LP-led secondaries.”

Oliver Jaegemann, Co-Founder at MeltX. “Our objective has been on getting a critical volume of sellers and buyers right from the very first auction. To achieve this, we've focused on simplifying the secondaries process for sellers and buyers, while recognising the important role of trusted advisers in these processes. The support we've received has been phenomenal and I’m very excited about the listings window now being open.” 

Solomon Wifa, Partner at Willkie, Farr & Gallagher. “We’re excited to collaborate with MeltX to streamline the implementation aspects of LP-led secondary sales. Having fed into the design of the platform, we are confident that MeltX can help make transactions quicker while reducing the risk of a transaction not completing.”

Next steps: First auction in Q2 2025

Being independently owned, and collaborating with the UK pensions community, MeltX now has support from individuals and firms representing the majority of assets in the £1 trillion+ UK defined benefit pensions sector.

Sellers need to have listed available opportunities by the end of April 2025. Buyers can access opportunities from 6 May 2025, with the first auction deadlines at the end of June 2025.  We invite interested buyers, sellers and advisors to register their interest at www.meltx.uk.

Only institutional investors and their advisors can access MeltX.