New Jersey’s Division of Investment is proposing a real assets commitment totaling up to $300 million to Ardian’s ASF IX Infrastructure secondaries platform, split between up to $150 million for Ardian Secondaries Fund (ASF) IX Infrastructure B, L.P., and up to $150 million for a co-investment sidecar vehicle alongside the fund. The proposal was presented to the State Investment Council in a memorandum dated January 22, 2026, with staff indicating they expected to discuss the investment at the Council’s January 28, 2026, meeting.
The division framed the opportunity as a way to increase exposure to infrastructure secondaries with immediate portfolio exposure and diversification benefits relative to pacing through primary commitments alone. The memo emphasized that the strategy seeks to reduce the J-curve effect by acquiring seasoned infrastructure assets, with the aim of accelerating distributions to paid-in capital, while diversifying across multiple general partners, vintage years, sectors, and geographies.
In recommending the commitment, staff highlighted Ardian’s performance history in infrastructure secondaries, citing an aggregate net internal rate of return of approximately 12% since inception for its infrastructure secondary funds. The memo also pointed to a stated loss ratio of less than 1% across three dedicated infrastructure secondary funds, positioning the approach as more reliant on portfolio appreciation and value creation than on leverage or buying at steep discounts.
The memo also cited platform scale and team continuity. It described Ardian’s broader fund-of-funds platform as managing approximately $100 billion and noted that the management committee averages nearly 19 years of tenure at the firm and 20 years of private markets experience, with employee ownership cited as a source of alignment with limited partners. It further argued that, upon closing, the fund would be the largest dedicated infrastructure secondary fund, which the division said should enhance the firm’s ability to execute large and complex transactions and benefit from repeat-seller relationships and a proprietary private-markets database.
In an attached investment policy committee report, the fund was described as a global infrastructure secondaries strategy targeting a 12%-14% net IRR, with a $7.5 billion target fund size and a 1.0% general partner commitment. The vehicle summary stated that the fund will primarily target limited-partner-led secondaries transactions in private-market infrastructure investments, with a limited allocation to general-partner-led secondaries, primaries, and co-investments.
The report provided performance snapshots for prior Ardian infrastructure secondaries vintages, listing ASF VI Infrastructure (2014) at 16.7% net IRR with 1.6x net TVPI and 1.3x net DPI, ASF VII Infrastructure (2017) at 11.5% net IRR with 1.6x net TVPI and 0.9x net DPI, and ASF VIII Infrastructure (2021) at 10.7% net IRR with 1.1x net TVPI and 0.1x net DPI, with figures shown as net as of June 30, 2025 and sourced to Aksia LLC.
Fee terms in the report included a 1% management fee on commitments during the investment period and 0.675% on the lower of net asset value or acquisition cost after the investment period, plus a 12.5% carry with a 7% hurdle. The materials also referenced a 100% management-fee offset for certain fee categories and a 0.2% per annum transaction fee on cash at work. The co-investment sidecar was shown with a fund size of $151.5 million and no management or incentive fee, and the auditor was listed as PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The division noted that, as part of its due diligence, staff determined that the fund had not engaged a third-party solicitor and that a preliminary political contributions disclosure report had been obtained, with no political contributions disclosed. The memo also stated that the division’s corporate governance team reviewed Ardian’s ESG efforts, referenced the firm’s responsible investment policy and sustainability steering committee, and noted that Ardian was an early signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment in 2009.
The report had listed key investment professionals, including Dominique Senequier, Mark Benedetti, Vladimir Colas, and Jan Philipp Schmitz, with background details spanning earlier roles at AXA Group, KPMG, Ernst & Young, and Arthur Andersen, among others. The firm’s total assets listed were $192 billion, with headquarters in Paris.
