Hayfin hires Pantheon exec for secondaries build-out – exclusive

Hayfin Capital Management, a private debt specialist, has hired a Pantheon investment professional as it builds out its secondaries team, Secondaries Investor has learned.

The London-headquartered investment firm has hired Vladimir Balchev, a vice-president in Pantheon’s European investment team, according to two sources familiar with the matter. He will join Hayfin’s private equity funds investment team after the summer as a principal and focus on secondaries.

Balchev ranked second in Secondaries Investor‘s Young Guns of Secondaries Class of 2017 and was promoted in each of his four years at Pantheon. He has been responsible for origination, analysis, and deal execution as well as covering the CEE region as a relationship manager. He also has prior experience at Rothschild.

In January Hayfin hired Mirja Lehmler-Brown from Aberdeen Asset Management to lead its newly created private equity fund of funds platform, which invests in mid-market European buyout houses. A source at a European fund of funds told sister publication Private Equity International in February that Hayfin was planning to differentiate itself by building up expertise in secondaries and co-investments.

Hayfin was founded in 2009 and invests across direct lending, special opportunities, high-yield credit and securitised credit strategies, according to its website. It has offices in London, Paris, Madrid, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Tel Aviv and New York.

At least two other institutions have launched private equity secondaries businesses this year. Dutch pension manager APG’s asset management unit is establishing an in-house team based in New York, while BlackRock hired two executives from Goldman Sachs Asset Management to build a team from July.

Hayfin and Pantheon declined to comment.

– Rod James contributed to this report.