Green takes over as Greenpark CIO

Greenpark Capital has promoted Daniel Green from investment director to become the firm’s new chief investment officer, Private Equity International can exclusively reveal.

Green, who joined the secondaries specialist in 2001, takes over the CIO role from chief executive Marleen Groen, who had been doing both jobs since the firm’s inception.

The move comes during a period of expansion for Greenpark. The firm recently made three hires in Hong Kong as it looks to expand its emerging markets capabilities. Among them was Chin Chin Teoh, former managing director and co-head of BofA Merrill Lynch’s Asia private equity group, who joined Greenpark as head of Asia.

Green will be responsible for leading the investment team’s activities, as well as sourcing, evaluating and executing deals.

“There is a substantial volume of deals out there, and 2012 is likely to be another record year,” Green told Private Equity International. “Banks have been offloading assets, which has driven activity, but there is a host of other people selling for a variety of reasons. People have questioned whether the banking-led disposal volume can be maintained, but there are a lot more assets to be sold.”

The firm has been building up its emerging markets capabilities having previously focused principally on Europe and the US. The firm won a mandate from the IFC in July last year to raise and manage a secondaries fund that will target the emerging markets. The fund will have a $500 million target, and IFC, the private investment arm of the World Bank, is anchoring the fund with a $100 million commitment and will share its extensive knowledge of emerging markets with the firm. The fund will initially target more mature markets in Asia, but will expand into Latin America and Africa, according to market sources.

“Emerging markets secondaries is a massive growth area,” Green said. “Although the volume doesn’t come close to what you see in Europe or the US, we believe there is comfortably $2-3 billion of dealflow there each year. Equally importantly, it’s a less competitive marketplace than in the established markets.”

Greenpark is also raising its fourth global secondaries fund. Greenpark International Investors IV held a first close on $350 million last year, and is targeting $1.2 billion according to PEI data. The firm declined to comment on the fundraising.