PJT Partners taps former Credit Suisse, Apollo exec for GP-leds

PJT Partners has hired a secondaries advisory executive who was previously Credit Suisse‘s head of secondaries advisory for the Americas, Secondaries Investor has learned.

Chris Areson has joined the New-York headquartered investment bank as a managing director in the firm’s secondaries advisory unit, according to an email by Areson seen by Secondaries Investor. He will focus on GP-led transactions, the email noted.

“I am excited to be returning to the secondaries space as it continues to grow and evolve,” Areson wrote in the email.

Areson most recently served as managing director in Apollo Global Management’s private equity products team, focusing on fundraising, Secondaries Investor reported in 2019. That role was not involved in secondaries, and at that time he joined, Apollo had no plans to enter the sector, Secondaries Investor reported.

He had joined Apollo following a 15-year tenure at Credit Suisse.

Apollo made waves last month when it said it had $1 billion of insurance client capital for its credit secondaries strategy, which will focus on LP-stakes in private credit funds with an eye on private equity secondaries. The firm has tapped ex-Goldman Sachs partner Earl Hunt to co-lead the credit effort, with the search for the other co-lead underway.

Hiring in secondaries remains competitive in the advisory area with professionals bouncing between established players and a spate of new entrants. This month, Secondaries Investor reported that Jefferies had hired Matthew Wesley and several other professionals from Guggenheim Securities to focus on GP-led deals. Those executives had originally joined from PJT Partners.

In January, PJT tapped a former Morgan Stanley exec to run Asian secondaries, as two PJT directors left to start a secondaries advisory at Rothschild & Co, Secondaries Investor reported.

In its London office, PJT added two professionals, one from CS and the other from Aviditi Advisors, to its secondaries advisory group in March.

PJT’s secondaries practice is run by global head David Perdue in New York, with Johanna Lottmann in London for Europe.

Separate spokespeople for PJT and Apollo did not return requests for comment.