17Capital promotes three

The London-based preferred equity firm promoted two to investment director and one to VP, and also hired an analyst.

17Capital, a London-based preferred equity specialist, has announced a number of promotions, including Owen James and Fokke Lucas to investment director, according to a statement.

Owen James
Owen James

Vjerana Spajic was promoted to vice-president within the same team, while Jason Wunscher joins as an analyst from Canaccord Genuity.

Prior to 17Capital, James worked at SVG Advisers, which is now part of Aberdeen Asset Management, as well as Bank of Scotland and PwC. Lucas was previously at independent credit investment manager Neovara, which spun out of Lehman Brothers’ European mezzanine business.

Vjerana Spajic
Vjerana Spajic

Spajic, who was previously at the Carlyle Group’s AlpInvest Partners working on secondaries transactions, joined the in last June along with Nicolo Colombo, who came from Adams Street Partners, as reported by Secondaries Investor. At the same time, Beate Pelz was hired as director of investor relations.

The 17-strong team is headed by Pierre-Antoine de Selancy and Augustin Duhamel.

Founded in 2008, 17Capital provides short- to medium-term financing to investors in private equity portfolios with the aim of allowing both GPs and LPs to raise capital or reduce their exposure without selling to the secondaries market or using debt, according to the statement.

The firm said it is “well ahead of its initially expected investment pace” for its €500 million 17 Capital Fund 3.