Mill Reef adds investment principal

Mill Reef Capital, founded by the former head of secondaries at Schroder Adveq, has made several hires in its investment team.

The Zurich-headquartered secondaries firm has appointed Sven Asmussen as principal, according to a statement. He joins from European small-cap fund of funds manager Clearsight Investment, where he was a managing partner and investment committee member.

Asmussen will work on primary and secondaries investments, partner and founder Nico Taverna confirmed to Secondaries Investor.

Associates Lars Helfenstein and Edoardo Pediconi have respectively joined from a large Swiss family office and Lazard’s Milan-based investment banking team. Analyst Patrick Bekic is joining from CEE-focused private debt firm CVI.

Sophie Dürst also joined as a vice-president in the operations and controlling team. She comes from Schroder Capital.

Mill Reef hit the €180 million hard-cap on its debut fund in August. The fund focuses on small, complex secondaries deals and makes primary commitments to managers it sees as having differentiated strategies in the European lower-mid-market. It also invests in preferred equity deals.

Secondaries Investor reported in 2019 that Nico Taverna was departing Schroder Adveq to launch his own firm. Mill Reef formed later that year with Taverna and former LGT Capital Partners executive director Gregor Hasler as partners.