HarbourVest to open Tel Aviv, Seoul offices – exclusive

The fund of funds manager, which already has seven offices, will expand in the Middle East and Asia.

HarbourVest Partners plans to push further into Asia and the Middle East with two new offices in the regions, Secondaries Investor has learned.

The fund of funds manager, which is in market with its ninth dedicated secondaries fund, will open offices in Tel Aviv and Seoul, according to a press release obtained exclusively by Secondaries Investor.

HarbourVest managing director Peter Wilson said: “Like all of HarbourVest’s offices, Seoul and Tel Aviv will enhance our powerful global investment platform by focusing on local opportunities across primary, secondaries and direct co-investments, as well as working with local investors on their private market portfolios.”

Ilan Rosen, who has worked with HarbourVest as a consultant for 12 years, will head the Israel outpost as a principal. Rosen has over 22 years of experience in private equity investments and has served as chairman at VocalTec Communications, an Israel-based telecommunications firm, since November 2005, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has held roles in Israel’s private equity sector including as general manager of Adsha, an Israeli investment company traded on the Tel Aviv stock exchange.

Minjun Chung, a principal in HarbourVest’s Hong Kong office, will move to the new Seoul office. Chung focuses on investments and relationships in North Asia and previously worked at Qatar Holdings and Pantheon Capital where he undertook primary, direct, and secondaries investments in the Asia-Pacific region. The firm said he had been “focusing on identifying primary, secondaries and direct co-investments in South Korea over the past five years, as well as establishing relationships with local investors”.

The South Korean office will be the firm’s third in Asia after Beijing and Tokyo, and the Israel bureau is HarbourVest’s first in the Middle East. The firm currently has seven offices, having opened a Toronto branch in April, according to its website.

Wilson added: “Ilan Rosen has worked with us for over a decade and has been instrumental in establishing our local presence in the Israeli market. Similarly, Minjun Chung has developed the firm’s business in South Korea over the past five years and we’re confident that under his leadership our growth in the market will continue.”

HarbourVest has been investing since 1978 and manages over $37 billion in assets, according to PEI’s Research and Analytics division. The firm is aiming to hold a first close on its ninth secondaries fund in December, as exclusively reported by Secondaries Investor on Wednesday. The fund is targeting around $3.6bn.