Mercury Capital partner and head of secondaries departs firm

Mercury Capital Advisors’ head of secondaries advisory who helped build the practice at the firm is leaving the adviser and placement agent.

Partner Sabina Sammartino’s last day at the advisory firm and placement agent will be Tuesday, according to a farewell email seen by Secondaries Investor. It is unclear where she is next headed.

“It has been my absolute pleasure working with you all during this time and I very much look forward to remaining in touch going forward,” Sammartino wrote, adding that she will communicate her next step in April.

Sammartino joined Mercury in 2015 as partner to lead its secondaries business. Prior to that she was managing director at secondaries firm Paul Capital where she was responsible for sourcing, structuring, evaluating, negotiating and closing a broad range of private equity secondaries transactions. She also spent time at BNP Paribas where she was head of private equity investments as well as GE Equity where she led origination, execution and management of private equity direct and fund investments, among other duties, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Her departure from the firm comes seven months after Mercury hired Vik Salh from Upwelling Capital as a vice-president of secondaries, as Secondaries Investor reported.

Mercury Capital was acquired by Bahrain-headquartered investment firm Investcorp in 2019. In addition to its secondaries business, it has been a regular placement agent for GPs such as Coller Capital and Asia-focused growth investor Anchor Equity Partners.

Neither Sammartino nor a spokesperson for Mercury responded to a request for comment.