UBS hires European head of secondaries

UBS has bolstered its secondaries advisory business in London by appointing Rodney Reid as head of European secondaries, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Reid, who started last week, relocated from the US where he was executive director in the secondaries team in New York – a position he held since June 2006, according to Reid’s LinkedIn page.

Reid’s appointment, which was first reported by Financial News, comes a few months after Nigel Dawn and Nicolas Lanel left UBS for investment bank Evercore to run its recently established secondaries business.

UBS planned to recruit additional professionals for the team, managing director Philip Tsai told Private Equity International in August.

“We’re looking to invest and grow the business … there’s a strong commitment and investment that the firm has continued to make and plans to make,” Tsai told PEl. “We’re looking to expand our team in the US and London.”

UBS won two significant mandates after the high-level departures, Tsai said at the time. The firm said it was exploring opportunities around GP restructurings.

“We view ourselves as having a competitive advantage in looking at some of these situations, being that UBS has one of the best placement agent businesses globally,” Tsai said.