Lazard makes senior APAC hire with former Credit Suisse, JPMorgan exec

Lazard has made a senior hire to bolster its presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

The New York-headquartered investment bank has hired Patrick No as a managing director in Singapore to cover secondaries transactions and primary fundraising in the region, according to a statement.

No joins from Credit Suisse where he was the Asia head of financial sponsors. He previously held various fundraising roles at JPMorgan.

No’s hire “strengthens our senior experience and expertise in APAC, together with Nick Miles, head of Europe and Asia Private Equity and demonstrates our commitment to the continued growth of our advisory practices in the region”, Holcombe Green, global head of private capital advisory, said in the statement.

Miles is also Singapore-based.

Asia-focused funds and direct sales accounted for almost 6 percent of assets purchased in the first half of this year, according to data from Setter Capital.

The hire comes five months after the departure of Singapore-headquartered Dominik Woessner, who left in March to become a managing director at private capital placement and advisory business Thrive Alternatives, as Secondaries Investor reported in May.

In a market with fierce competition for talent, this is not the first time a firm has tapped a fundraiser for a secondaries role: Boston-based secondaries specialist Mozaic Capital Advisors hired Myra Choo as director from MVision Private Equity Advisers in May.

Lazard has advised on deals including the single-asset secondaries process on DomusVi, one of Europe’s largest care-home groups, which closed last month; Astorg’s single-asset secondaries deal IQ-EQ, which closed in June; and Madison Dearborn Partners’ process involving insurance broker/consultancy NFP Corp, as Secondaries Investor and affiliate title Buyouts have reported.

The bank advised on at least $10 billion of secondaries deals across more than 20 transactions in 2019, according to the Secondaries Investor Advisory Survey 2020. The firm did not participate in the most recent survey.