Finland’s eQ appoints director of secondaries

Mika Hakola joined the asset manager in 2015 to help build out its secondaries business, which targets LP- and GP-led deals in the Northern European mid-market.

Helsinki-headquartered eQ Asset Management has promoted a long-standing secondaries investment manager.

Mika Hakola has been made director responsible for secondaries, according to a LinkedIn update from the investment manager’s head of private equity Staffan Jafs. The promotion was made at the start of March.

Hakola joined eQ as an analyst in 2015 with the job of building out a secondaries business. The promotion comes with a place on the investment committee, he told Secondaries Investor.

The asset manager has closed three dedicated secondaries funds since Hakola joined, raising a combined €413 million, according to Secondaries Investor data. The most recent eQ PE SF III closed above target in June on €155 million.

“Mika has done great job propagating secondaries within eQ and the Finnish investment community,” said a director with a small European buyer, adding that Hakola has led on more than €300 million of transactions.

eQ targets limited partnership stakes and GP-led deals in the Northern European mid-market. Much of its secondaries activity originates from relationships built through its primary platform and it also invests as a syndicate partner in larger GP-led deals alongside international secondaries firms, Hakola said.

In June, the firm held a €190 million final close on eQ PE XII North, a fund of funds focused on Northern European growth-stage companies that can invest one third of its capital in secondaries, Secondaries Investor reported.

eQ has €8.7 billion in assets under management, 40.3 percent of which is in alternatives, according to Secondaries Investor data.