PJT hires Lexington principal in continued Asia build-out

PJT Partners has continued to build out its Asia secondaries advisory business after appointing a regional head in the first quarter of this year.

The investment bank has hired Ronnie Shen as a principal in its Hong Kong office, according to two sources familiar with the matter. He was a principal at Lexington Partners, which he joined in 2011 after a period as an investment banking associate with JPMorgan, according to his archived corporate biography.

Lexington did not respond to a request for comment.

In January, PJT Partners hired Jolie Chow as managing director of its Asia secondaries advisory business. She joined from Morgan Stanley, where she led financial sponsors coverage across China, Hong Kong and Taiwan for the bank’s investment banking division.

Chow’s appointment was part of an initiative to build a dedicated Asia-Pacific secondaries practice, global head David Perdue told Secondaries Investor.

“Our focus globally is going to be on the highest-quality GP-led transactions in the marketplace, and we see growing volumes out of the Asia region,” Perdue said.

PJT Partners advised on $10 billion of deal volume in 2020, roughly evenly split between GP-led deals and LP portfolios, according to the Secondaries Investor Advisory Survey 2021. Around $3.8 billion was in single-asset transactions.

There were at least four $1 billion-plus GP-led deals in the Asia-Pacific market as of late May and at least one $1 billion-plus LP portfolio, Secondaries Investor understands.

PJT declined to comment.