News & Analysis

TR Capital hires ex-Temasek exec to lead Mumbai office

Norbert Fernandes, who spent four years at the Singaporean state investment firm, will head up the direct secondaries specialist's third outpost in the region.

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TR Capital, a Hong Kong-headquartered direct secondaries firm, has opened an office in Mumbai, its third in Asia.

Norbert Fernandes, a former senior associate at Temasek and co-founder of IvyCap Ventures, joined TR Capital in October as vice-president, according to his LinkedIn profile. He will lead the firm’s investments in India, Secondaries Investor understands.

The firm also relocated several members of its investment team to Mumbai and will continue to hire locally.

India has been a core market for TR Capital since 2008, with close to 20 secondaries transactions completed there, founder Paul Robine said in a statement. Commenting on private equity in India, he added that the asset class is maturing and “the development of the secondary market is a natural consequence of the large volume of private equity investments during the past fifteen years”.

The office opening comes a month after the firm exited its secondary investment in Bangalore-based e-commerce company Flipkart via a share buyback valuing the company at $20 billion.

Its India portfolio includes investments in Arohan Financial Services and Lenskart Solutions.

TR Capital is deploying its 2016-vintage fund TR Capital III which closed on $200 million, below its $250 million target, according to PEI data.