Download our latest whitepaper on GP Vertical StrategiesTM in the secondaries market
Our latest whitepaper outlines Sarasin Bread Street’s GP Vertical strategy TM and how this utilises the strong GP-led dynamic in the secondaries market.
About Us
Team
Origins
Sarasin Bread Street. Our name reflects a combined heritage allied to our single purpose: to deliver thoughtful, responsible private markets investment portfolios to our clients.
We are part of Sarasin & Partners LLP, the global investment manager that invests thematically and responsibly on behalf of institutions, charities and private clients, with Switzerland’s Bank J. Safra Sarasin as a majority shareholder.
Bread Street in the City of London was where, from 2013, Alex Barr and James Witter co-led a private equity portfolio management team for a large global asset manager.
Naming the private markets business they founded in March 2021 Bread Street Capital Partners after this historic location was a natural decision. Sarasin Bread Street was formed a year later.
Sarasin Bread Street stands for performance. For client driven solutions. For product innovation. For the highest professional standards.
They are as much Sarasin & Partners’ watchwords as they are ours and they continue to drive us now.
Purpose
Listening to our clients, and understanding their needs …. must always come first"
Alex Barr and James Witter,
Partners, Sarasin Bread Street
Sarasin Bread Street will invest in private markets. We aim to deliver outstanding long-term investment returns for our clients and to broaden investor access to the asset class.
We listen. We create. We innovate.
We will do this by partnering with clients from the outset to understand which opportunities across private equity, infrastructure, private debt and real assets will help them meet their investment objectives.
We will create risk appropriate portfolios and innovative products, drawing on our track record in responsible investing, owner engagement and investment oversight. For clients with mature portfolios, we offer tried and tested expertise in providing clear, unconflicted end of fund life advice, options and execution.
Drawing on previous experience, we have invested on behalf of clients ranging from listed investment companies, financial institutions, government agencies and UK local authorities to life funds, endowments, private banks and family offices.
A Bread Street portfolio reflects everything we would demand from an investment manager.
Investing Philosophy
Due diligence, judgement and common sense lie at the core of good, responsible investment decision making"
Alex Barr - Partner
How we think
Sarasin Bread Street’s philosophy stems from decades of shared investment experience.
Due diligence, judgement and common sense define that thinking.
For Sarasin Bread Street, due diligence is the process of systematically isolating and assessing risk factors and understanding the chances of different outcomes to those expected.
Our judgement shapes our guiding principles of investing:
- Choose the people behind the proposition first. We look for quality, expertise, values and integrity
- Invest only in what we understand and can explain simply
- Focus on what we are not being told – it is often more important
- Analyse whether it might have been luck, not skill, that created value
- Strive to invest alongside smarter people than you
- Always align ‘our risk’ with ‘their reward’
Why private markets
Sarasin Bread Street has a deep understanding of private markets and the additional sources of return and risk they offer.
For investors who are able to accept illiquidity on a proportion of their investment portfolios and who are prepared to take a longer-term view, typically 5 to 10 years, private markets may offer important benefits.
We believe the potential for good relative returns stems from active ownership and implementing operational and strategic change"
James Witter - Partner
- We believe the potential for good relative returns stems from active ownership. This entails adding value through implementing operational and strategic change, timing when to buy and sell in less transparent markets, and aligning management incentives
- Portfolio diversification may benefit from greater exposure to a broader range of industry sectors, underlying return drivers and outcomes versus public markets. In particular, the established trend for young rapidly growing companies to stay private for longer has allowed private market investors to capture this value growth
- Lower volatility than public markets resulting from factors including the reduced frequency of valuations, the lack of leverage in smaller high growth companies and the contractual nature of infrastructure revenues
Please note that the value of private markets investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and you may not get back the amount originally invested.
Expertise
For Sponsors
For General Partners and Sponsors meeting our investment criteria, Sarasin Bread Street offers proven expertise.
This includes launching and managing permanent capital vehicles as well as a variety of private structured feeder and continuation vehicles.
Our founders’ extensive experience as Limited Partner Advisory Committee members, and as directors of specialist feeder vehicles, provides proven know-how in managing potential conflicts and governance issues.
For Investors
Sarasin Bread Street’s founders have long track records in constructing private markets investment portfolios.
These have been focused on single managers, specific financing stages, sectors and geographies, as well as building globally diversified private markets portfolios.
Sarasin Bread Street are developing a range of innovative private market funds for investors that seek to deliver multi vintage exposures to individual high quality private markets managers, thus diversifying certain risk exposures. For single institutional investors we provide tailored advisory services including investment due diligence and selection; all aspects of portfolio construction; risk budget setting and monitoring; and portfolio management.
For Asset and Wealth Managers
We will seek to work with firms to design and manage products that are tailored for their clients’ needs and provide access to attractive private market opportunities, that have previously been harder to access or available only through a limited range of exchange listed private equity funds.
We aim to offer firms and their clients easy to manage and carefully risk-managed exposures in a responsible, convenient and cost-efficient way.
Contact Us
Sarasin Bread Street is the specialist private markets business of Sarasin & Partners LLP and is focused on delivering and managing innovative, differentiated private market products for a full range of institutional and professional clients.
Responsible | Client driven | Trusted
Sarasin Bread Street
Juxon House,
100 St Paul’s Churchyard,
London EC4M 8BU
Call us on +44 (0)20 7038 7000
© 2007 – 2025 Sarasin Bread Street. All rights reserved.
Sarasin Bread Street is a trading name of the private markets division of Sarasin & Partners LLP. Sarasin & Partners LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC329859 whose registered office is at Juxon House 100 St. Paul’s Churchyard, London, EC4M 8BU.
Sarasin & Partners LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority with a firm reference number 475111.
Please note that the value of private markets investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and you may not get back the amount originally invested. This can be as a result of market movements and also of variations in the exchange rates between currencies. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results and may not be repeated. Forecasts are not a reliable indicator of future performance.
All details on this website are intended for professional investors only and are for information purposes only. This should not be misinterpreted as investment or taxation advice and is not an offer or recommendation to buy or sell securities. You should not act or rely on this website but should seek independent advice and verification in relation to its contents.