Tullett Prebon reshuffles secondaries business – exclusive

Tullett Prebon’s secondaries team has undergone considerable changes to its function and management.

The division, which was previously known as Tullett Prebon Alternative Investment Desk, will be consolidated with the debt solutions team under the name Tullett Prebon Alternatives, according to a statement obtained exclusively by Secondaries Investor.

Michael McKell, the group’s former head of real estate secondaries and one of Secondaries Investor’s Young Guns from the class of 2017, becomes head of secondaries.

Gareth James, a former global head of hedge fund derivatives at Deutsche Bank and global head of hedge fund solutions at UBS Investment Bank, will lead the Tullett Prebon Alternatives group. He joined the firm in January.

The Alternatives team will report to Sam Ruiz, global chief executive officer of TP ICAP Group’s Institutional Services division.

TP ICAP Group was formed in 2016 through ICAP’s acquisition of Tullett Prebon in a deal valued at £1.28 billion ($1.7 billion; €1.5 billion). It is the world’s largest interdealer broker.

The secondaries team executes private equity, real estate, hedge fund and private credit transactions. The debt solutions team arranges and structures financing facilities for private funds and fund managers. By placing the two teams together, the firm plans to leverage its banking relationships to extend quick, cheap financing for secondaries transactions.

“On the debt side, navigating the banks and lending space for optimal terms is a minefield, particularly as borrowers are not specialists and lenders are more apart from each other and more numerous than they have ever been,” said Gareth James.

James replaces Tullett Prebon’s former global head of alternatives Alastair Sword, who left in April.

Three members of the secondaries team took up director positions with Duff & Phelps’s secondaries unit this year: Bill Arnold and Dan Nolan in January, and Maulik Patel in April, as reported by Secondaries Investor.