Firms & funds in brief

• Duke Street Capital has appointed Charlie Troup as a partner and Sir Neville Simms (61) as operating partner. Troup spent the past 10 years at Permira, becoming a partner in 2001. At Permira, Troup worked on a wide range of deals including TGE, Memec, Inmarsat and the AA.

According to sources close to the situation, Troup left the UK-based buyout giant because he wanted to return to his roots in mid-market private equity, where individual partners can play a far greater role in shaping all aspects of a deal. Prior to joining, he did extensive market research and was initially thought to be joining newcomer European Capital.

Simms joins Duke Street’s team of operating partners, who provide industry expertise to Duke Street’s investment team on deal origination, investee company transformation and exit management. He will specialise in the support services sector.

He is currently chairman of International Power, a leading independent power generation company with interests in 37 power stations in 18 countries and a market capitalisation of £4bn. He has substantial experience in both business transformation and the support services sector through previous roles as CEO of Tarmac and chairman of demerged construction business Carillion.

The appointments represent something of a coup for the group, which is currently raising its sixth fund.

• Bill Price, a co-founder of US-based buyout firm Texas Pacific Group, has decided not to participate as a general partner in its new fund, according to trade paper Private Equity Insider.

The vehicle is expected to raise between US$10bn and US12bn, and will feature two tiers of key men. The top tier consists of fellow co-founders David Bonderman and Jim Coulter, while the second tier includes London-based Philippe Costeletos, Richard Boyce, Jonathan Coslet, Kelvin Davis, John Marren and Stephen Peel.

The firm is also reportedly planning to raise US$1bn for a new distressed debt vehicle called TPG Credit Management.

• Bain Capital has boosted its China private equity business with the appointment of a third managing director. The US based group has appointed Jonathan Zhu, ex-CEO of Morgan Stanley in China, as MD in its Hong Kong office.

Zhu is an established presence in China’s capital markets, having spent 10 years with Morgan Stanley in China, and is being appointed as a founding member of Bain’s Asia investment team.

He joins Jim Hildebrandt and Jing Huang, who joined the firm as managing directors in 2005. Hildebrandt joined from management consultant Bain & Company and Huang from Softbank Asia Infrastructure fund (SAIF).

Bain Capital is a private investment firm that manages private equity, venture capital, public equity, and leveraged debt assets and capital assets. The business has more than US$27bn in assets under management. US-based Bain has Asian offices in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai