Mercury Capital Advisors‘ Alan Pardee, a veteran of private equity fundraising, is leaving the firm he founded after spinning out of Merrill Lynch more than a decade ago.
Pardee’s last day at the placement agent and advisory firm will be on Sunday. He is set to join Valor Equity Partners – a firm he and Mercury have raised several private equity funds for – on 1 September as a managing director focusing on external relations and will be based in New York.
“After a successful 22 years as a placement agent and after the sale of Mercury to Investcorp, I started thinking a little bit differently about how I want to spend my time,” Pardee told sister publication Private Equity International.
“I decided that the right next chapter for me would be to go in-house to a team that I know well. I’ve worked with Valor across a number of fundraisings and have known the team for a very long time.”
Mercury has raised secondaries funds including for Coller Capital and Madison International Realty, according to its website.
Its secondaries advisory work includes holding company secondaries process involving Stagwell Group in 2018. In that deal, AlpInvest Partners invested $260 million in 17 marketing, communications and research companies held in a fund managed by Stagwell.
Its head of secondaries is Sabina Sammartino, a partner who is based in London.
Pardee founded Mercury alongside Michael Ricciardi and Enrique Cuan when Merrill Lynch’s private fund placement team spun out in 2009. The trio have remained the firm’s managing partners. He has led fundraisings for some of the private equity industry’s biggest names, including KKR, Castle Harlan Partners, Silver Lake Partners, Thomas H Lee Partners, and Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe, according to Mercury’s website.
In May last year, Bahrain-headquartered Investcorp acquired 100 percent of Mercury. Four representatives from Investcorp were to join Mercury’s board of directors post-acquisition, with Mercury’s management team continuing to run the business, PEI reported. The acquisition brought more than 50 fundraisers across 14 offices into Investcorp, which aims to grow its AUM to $50 billion.
Chicago-headquartered Valor is seeking $1.25 billion for Valor Equity Partners V and had raised $1.02 billion as of early July, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm invests in growth and early stage companies, according to its website.
“I’ve seen Valor grow over time and I’ve been impressed with their investments – the great operating skill that they bring to the companies they invest in and that welcome their investments,” Pardee said.
“We have worked with them on a number of fundraising, I’ve known them for a very long time and I’m delighted to be joining them. I’m excited to help them grow further.”
A spokesman for Mercury declined to comment.
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