News & Analysis

Mercury hires Glendower exec to lead on secondaries – updated

The appointment comes as former secondaries head Sabina Sammartino leaves after eight years at the placement agent and advisory firm.

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Mercury Capital Advisors has hired an executive from Glendower Capital as partner to lead its secondaries advisory effort.

London-based Devrup Banerjee joined Mercury on 1 February, according to a statement seen by Secondaries Investor. At Glendower, where he was a principal, he was responsible for sourcing, structuring, evaluating, negotiating and closing a broad range of secondaries private equity transactions, including both LP portfolio and single and multi-asset GP-led transactions.

He began his career in Goldman Sachs’ investment banking division, according to the statement, before moving on to Deutsche Bank, according to his LinkedIn.

His appointment comes after Sabina Sammartino departed the business on Tuesday, as Secondaries Investor reported. Sammartino, who helped build the secondaries practice at Mercury, said she will communicate her next step in April in a farewell email.

In July, Mercury hired Vik Salh from Upwelling Capital as a vice-president of secondaries, as Secondaries Investor reported.

Mercury managing partners John Franklin and Enrique Cuan said the firm continues to see strong momentum in both GP-led and LP-led secondaries transaction volumes.

“With his extensive experience, we are confident that Devrup will add significant value and contribute to the growth of our secondaries business vertical,” they said in the statement.

Recent mandates for Mercury have included a preferred equity deal for European special situations manager Springwater Capital with Morningside Capital Management and LSV Advisors, and a strategic investment by 17Capital in a portfolio of private equity, real estate and credit assets held by Investcorp, the statement said.

Its longstanding client roster includes Gaw Capital Partners, Coller Capital and Valar Ventures, with the firm advising new clients such as NGP Energy Capital, 3i Group and Capitol Meridian in the past year, it added.

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 and Asia-focused growth investor Anchor Equity Partners.

– This report has been updated to correctly state that Banerjee is leading Mercury’s secondaries effort.