Stone Point names Jon Costello as operating partner

Stone Point Capital has formally added PJT Partners‘ former secondaries head to its team, six months after Secondaries Investor reported on the move.

Jon Costello has joined the Greenwich, Connecticut-headquartered firm as an operating partner, according to Stone Point’s website. He is listed as having joined in 2020.

Secondaries Investor reported in May that Costello, who had led PJT Partners’ secondaries unit since 2017, was to focus on GP-led processes with Stone Point’s backing and would specifically work on single-asset secondaries transactions.

It is still unclear what role Stone Point will play in Costello’s operations, whether it will have an ownership stake in a venture run by him or simply provide anchor backing for a fund.

Stone Point lists one other operating partner on its website – Chris Stroup, who is chief executive of reinsurer Wilton Re, a former Stone Point portfolio company.

The firm is investing its $7 billion Trident VIII fund, which closed above its $5.75 billion target last year, according to PEI data. Its LP base includes the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, Alaska Permanent Fund and Washington State Investment Board.

Costello’s venture would be the latest in a handful of firms which have set up pots of capital dedicated to complex or single-asset secondaries deals. As of early November, LGT Capital Partners had raised at least $1.26 billion out of a $3.75 billion target for Crown Secondaries Special Opportunities II, which is understood to focus on spin-outs and single-asset restructurings, as Secondaries Investor reported.

Portfolio Advisors, which has traditionally invested in GP-led deals via its main secondaries fund, is preparing to launch a dedicated fund focusing on the strategy, managing director and co-head of global marketing Brian Murphy told Secondaries Investor in early November.

ICG is understood to have been one of the first firms to launch a dedicated GP-led secondaries fund with its $1.1 billion 2016-vintage ICG Strategic Secondaries Fund II, according to Secondaries Investor data.

Single-asset deals accounted for 17 percent of the $29 billion-worth of GP-led transactions last year, according to data from UBS.

Costello and Stone Point did not return requests for comment.