CPPIB names new secondaries head

The London-based appointment comes after the departure of two senior members from the pension giant's team, including its former head Michael Woolhouse.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has named a senior principal from its private equity funds team to lead its secondaries business, Secondaries Investor has learned.

Dushy Sivanithy, who joined the pension giant’s London office in 2018, becomes managing director and head of secondaries, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Sivanithy was previously head of origination at placement agent and advisory firm Rede Partners and has experience at UK development finance institution CDC Group and Pantheon, according to CPPIB’s website.

A spokesman for CPPIB confirmed the appointment.

Sivanithy’s appointment comes after a string of departures from the Canadian giant’s secondaries team, the latest being Europe lead Nik Morandi, who left in September, as Secondaries Investor reported. CPPIB’s former head of secondaries Michael Woolhouse left the pension in July to set up a secondaries investment business at private equity giant TPG in August, while Toronto-based principal Sebastien Siou – a Secondaries Investor Young Gun from 2018 – left in 2019 to join Whitehorse Liquidity Partners.

Of the five members of the pension’s senior secondaries team, only two remain.

CPPIB became a net seller during the last fiscal year after two years of heavy secondaries investment, according to its latest annual report, with C$700 million ($523 million; €445 million) of secondaries investments across six deals in the 12 months to 31 March.

In August, sister publication Buyouts reported that the pension was shopping a portfolio of private equity fund stakes worth more than $1 billion. The status of this sale is unclear.