Fresh from raising a €500 million secondaries fund, the managing partner of private equity firm 17Capital Pierre-Antoine de Selancy explains why the "preferred equity" model is proving so attractive.

The London-based firm has every right to be feeling a little bit pleased with itself. Dealflow has, he says, never been so good and its latest fund closed last month at €500 million, it said on Wednesday, comfortably exceeding its €450 million target. That was more than twice the size of its 2012 fund, and more than five times its €88 million debut fund raised in 2010.