Unigestion taps Abrdn for secondaries hire as it deploys sixth vintage

Unigestion has tapped Abrdn for its first dedicated secondaries professional in London.

Jordan Dimmock has joined the asset manager as a senior vice president to source and underwrite transactions for the sixth vintage of Unigestion’s secondaries strategy, according to a statement seen by Secondaries Investor.

Unigestion is actively recruiting to grow its secondaries presence in London, its global head of secondaries Ralph Büchel told Secondaries Investor.

Dimmock began his private equity career at Abrdn in 2014, becoming investment director in 2021. Across his time at the asset manager he was responsible for over $1.5 billion of transactions, including several GP-led and LP-led transactions, the statement said.

Mid-market focused Unigestion is currently raising Unigestion Secondary VI, which is targeting €1.5 billion, according to Secondaries Investor data. Its predecessor closed on €919 million, ahead of its €700 million target in 2022.

Fund VI will target 40-60 transactions, with 40 percent of the vehicle anticipated to be deployed each to North America and Europe, according to the statement. The remainder is expected to be deployed into Asia.

Unigestion has closed almost 30 transactions over the past 24 months, spanning LP-leds, GP-leds and direct secondaries, the statement noted. Several of those were exclusive to Unigestion.

Secondaries Investor reported this year that the firm was backing German private equity and venture capital firm LEA Partners’ concentrated €650 million multi-asset continuation fund in a transaction led by Accel-KKR.

It was also among investors on Presidio Investors’ roughly $120 million single-asset continuation fund involving a semiconductor testing company led by Kline Hill Partners last year, as well as a $300 million multi-asset continuation fund from India-focused private equity firm Samara Capital, which was led by TR Capital.

Across the past two years, Unigestion has generated a “record level of distributions”, with its largest 15 exits delivering a 4.4x average MOIC, the statement said.

“We have a clear vision of what makes for an attractive secondaries strategy and how we want to grow our secondaries business,” Büchel said.

Head of private equity Mark Zünd added: “We have developed a clearly defined investment strategy that takes full advantage of our primary platform and leverages on our direct investment underwriting skills to deliver consistent returns for our investors.”