As the market for “secondaries” continues to expand and firms specialising in the field broaden distribution to areas such as private clients, one player in the sector has opened a Japan office.
UK-based Coller
Capital, which deals with private market secondaries
investments, has set up an office in Tokyo – its sixth
Asia-Pacific location.
As part of the development, the firm said Hisashi Tanaka has
joined as head of Japan private wealth in the company’s private
wealth secondaries solutions (PWSS) team, and reports to Pak-Seng
Lai, head of PWSS distribution for APAC. The office began
operations on 12 November; Tanaka was appointed to his role on 1
May.
“Secondaries” refers to how investors can buy and sell
pre-existing investments in private equity, credit,
infrastructure, forms of real estate, and other assets.
The sector enables holders of these relatively illiquid assets to
adjust exposures and has grown rapidly in recent years.
According to US-headquartered investment banking firm Jeffries, the global
secondary market volume of $103 billion surged by 51 per cent
from $68 billion in H1 2024. “This represents the largest
year-over-year H1 volume increase and the most active six-month
period in market history,” it said in a report earlier this
year.
PWSS
Launched in 2023, PWSS provides eligible private wealth investors
access to Coller Capital’s evergreen funds, Coller International
Secondaries Private Equity Fund (CollerEquity) and Coller Private
Credit Secondaries (CollerCredit). Led by Peter Kim, partner
and head of Asia, Coller Capital has operated in the region in
Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul, Melbourne, Singapore and Tokyo as the
latest addition. Coller Capital
spoke to this news service in July about the sector, how it
acts as a diversifier and returns source.
Hisashi Tanaka has more than two decades of fundraising
experience in Japan, and joined Coller Capital from New York Life
Investments, where he served as head of retail distribution,
overseeing both publicly offered mutual funds and private assets.
Prior to this, he held senior retail sales positions at
Schroders, BNP Paribas, PineBridge, and Deutsche AM. He began his
career at SMBC Nikko Securities as a Japanese equity analyst.
Tanaka is joined by Keisuke Kagawa, who is joining as vice
president in the Japan PWSS team. He previously worked at
StepStone Group as vice president in the business
development division. Earlier in his career, Kagawa had
stints at Mitsubishi UFJ Alternative Investments,
PricewaterhouseCoopers Japan and Nomura Securities.
AloJapan.com