Mercury Capital is born

Merrill Lynch’s private fund placement team is to spinout to launch Mercury Capital Advisors next month.

The departure of the three executives, namely, Michael Ricciardi, Enrique Cuan and Alan Pardee, comes following the decision by Bank of America to wind down the placement business.

Mercury Capital will comprise of 24 executives and be led by Ricciardi, Cuan and Pardee.

During their tenure at Merrill the departed trio held some of the most prominent positions in the placement group. Ricciardi was global head of the placement group, Pardee was chief operating officer and Cuan was managing director and head of international distribution.

The firm will be officially launched in October and will have offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Seoul and will focus on opportunities in private equity real estate and infrastructure.

Mercury is not the first spin-out from Merrill Lynch’s placement group. In 2001, Mounir Guen founded MVision and currently leads a team of over 40 professionals.