Placement agent Monument Group and boutique secondaries advisory firm Mozaic Capital Advisors are set to merge after an eight-year strategic alliance.
The primary reason why Monument Group formed an alliance with Mozaic Capital in 2015 was so that the placement agent could be close to the secondaries market as it evolved, Monument managing partner Mike Miller told Secondaries Investor.
“It’s pretty clear, as we sit today, that in order to be a true value-added partner and adviser to our clients – whether it’s in primary fundraising or in the secondary market – it’s best to have all of those skill sets on the table [as] part of our team, as we engage with the market.”
Combined, Monument Group and Mozaic Capital have raised and advised on more than $131 billion of capital across 205 funds and transactions, according to a statement. The merged firm will have 50 professionals across its offices in Boston, London, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Tokyo, led by 16 partners with an average tenure of 15 years.
Although the name Mozaic Capital will “still be used for a short period of time”, the combined firm will ultimately operate under the Monument Group brand, Miller said. Miller will continue on as the firm’s managing partner, with Mozaic Capital founding partners Solomon Owayda and Christine Patrinos co-leading on secondaries transactions.
Over the past few years in particular, Patrinos said the firm has found itself collaborating with Monument Group on transactions “now more than ever”, citing the growth of the GP-led secondaries market.
“There’s been a number of instances… where Monument Group has raised primary capital and then we’ve come in and helped a GP with a continuation vehicle or secondary transaction and we expect that to continue going forward,” Patrinos said.
When asked why both firms chose to merge rather than continuing their strategic alliance, Patrinos explained “that line” between separate entities and combined firm “is beginning to blur already. So that’s why it makes sense.
“We could stay independent, but we think we’ll be much more powerful as a combined unit affecting seamless transactions for our clients across particularly the GP led space, but also providing another platform for LPs that want to think about their overall portfolio management.”
Monument Group was founded in 1994 while Mozaic Capital was founded in 2015 by Owayda and Patrinos.
Owayda had previously been a managing director and senior member of the investment team at Siguler Guff, helping CIOs of pension funds in the analysis and disposition of private equity partnership interests. Prior to that, he spent 12 years as the CIO of London-based SVG Advisors and has also worked for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System as the director of the alternative investments program.
Patrinos had been a private equity consultant based in Boston, advising institutional clients on secondaries transactions, fund structuring and portfolio valuation. She has also worked with HarbourVest Partners, where she was a member of the investment team.
Mozaic Capital advises on both LP-led and GP-led transactions. On the LP-side, it works “anywhere from under $20 million to multibillion-dollar portfolio sales”, Patrinos said. When it comes to GP-leds it is “measured in the GP-led transactions that we take on”, so each transaction has senior-level attention from the firm.
The firm is advising New York State Teachers’ Retirement System on a portfolio sale valued at around $6 billion, affiliate title Buyouts reported last week.
New York State Teachers’ has been a regular seller on the secondaries market. It has worked with Mozaic on its sales in recent years, including on the sale of a portfolio in 2021-22 that was valued at about $2.6 billion. It is unclear how much of that portfolio sold. The system also sold a portfolio in 2019, working with Mozaic.
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