Paul Capital Expands In South America And Asia

New York-based secondaries specialist Paul Capital has expanded into emerging markets by opening offices in São Paulo, Brazil, and Hong Kong and by making three appointments to its secondaries team.

Paul Capital chose São Paulo because of the amount of capital that has been invested in Brazil, the fact that the country has a significant network of general partners, and because Paul Capital found the right person locally to open and run that office. The company intends to expand its staff in both regions and will consider new offices as its business grows. The firm chose Hong Kong because its first set of secondary opportunities there includes the acquisition of older Asian funds concentrated in the Chinese city, according to a company spokesperson.

Duncan Littlejohn, a consultant to Paul Capital since 2007, joined the secondaries team as a managing director of the São Paulo office, which the firm claims is the first dedicated private equity secondaries office in Latin America. He was previously a partner at Brazilian private equity firm BPE Investimentos and its predecessor, Brasilpar. Lucian Wu joined in April 2008 as managing director of the firm’s Asian office to lead secondary investments across Asia. He was previously a partner at Henderson Private Capital in Asia. Jason Sambanju joined in August 2007 as a director and opened the firm’s Hong Kong office. He is responsible for the sourcing and execution of secondary transactions. Sambanju previously spent seven years with Symphony Capital Partners in Hong Kong.