Jefferies joins group of firms breaking into secondaries advisory world

Jefferies has become the latest entrant to the secondaries sellside market as competition among advisory firms heats up.

The New York-headquartered financial services firm has hired two senior members of Greenhill‘s secondaries advisory team – managing directors Brenlen Jinkens and Scott Beckelman – to launch its push into the sector, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

It is understood that the pair, who are based in London and New York respectively, will focus on both LP portfolio sales and GP-led processes.

A spokesman for Greenhill confirmed the pair had resigned as of last week.

The investment bank’s entry to the market follows that of firms including Aviditi Advisors, Swiss interdealer-broker Tradition and Guggenheim Partners, which have all hired secondaries professionals this year to launch advisory units.

Jinkens joined Cogent Partners in 2004, prior to Greenhill’s acquisition of the group in 2015. He has been responsible for all aspects of client engagements and transaction execution, focusing on continental Europe and the UK, according to a cached version of his profile on Greenhill’s website. His prior experience includes Lehman Brothers and McKinsey.

Beckelman had been with Cogent Partners since 2005 and was similarly responsible for working with limited partners and general partners, according to Greenhill’s website. He began his career at Landmark Partners.

The pair are no longer listed on Greenhill’s website.

Jefferies is a diversified financial services company engaged in investment banking and capital markets, asset management and direct investing, according to its website. The bank, via its Leucadia Asset Management unit, backed a GP stakes business last year – Stonyrock Partners – led by former AlpInvest Partners executive Sean Gallary and ex-Blackstone Alternative Asset Management managing director Craig Schortzmann.

Greenhill advised on the highest number of secondaries transactions last year at 70, including its landmark process with Japan’s Norinchukin Bank – the largest-ever secondaries sale, according to the Secondaries Investor Advisory Survey 2020.

The news comes amid a change in Greenhill’s secondaries unit’s senior management. Last Tuesday, Secondaries Investor reported that private capital advisory head Stephen Sloan was leaving the firm to join Portfolio Advisors. Todd Miller, a veteran of the group, took over as head of the unit.

Several high-profile personnel moves in the sell-side community have made headlines in recent months. On Thursday, Secondaries Investor reported that Ryan Binette, a director at Lazard, was leaving the firm to join Aviditi to work on secondaries advisory.

Michael Song, a Secondaries Investor Young Gun, had also left Greenhill last month to join Portfolio Advisors.

Duff & Phelps’s former secondaries advisory team resurfaced last week at Tradition and is understood to have a mandate to sell around $1 billion-worth of private markets stakes, as Secondaries Investor reported.

Former PJT Park Hill executives Matthew Wesley and Joe Slevin, and the ex-head of Houlihan Lokey’s secondaries advisory business, Richard Saltzman, are set to join Guggenheim after a period of gardening leave, as Secondaries Investor has reported.

A spokesman for Jefferies did not return a request for comment by press time. Neither Jinkens nor Beckelman returned requests for comment.