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Verdane bulks up with investment team hires

The direct secondaries specialist is investing its $685m Fund X, which closed in January last year.

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Direct secondaries specialist Verdane Capital has bulked up its investment team as it continues to deploy its 10th flagship fund.

The Oslo-headquartered manager has appointed Fanny Stenmarck as an associate in its Copenhagen office, according to statement. She previously spent two years with the corporate finance division of Danske Bank, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The firm has also hired analysts Gustav Friberg and Sebastian Stierncreutz. They will be  respectively based in the firm’s Berlin and Helsinki offices

Verdane also made six appointments to its in-house operations team Elevate across Stockholm, Oslo and New York.

Verdane Capital X hit its SKr6 billion ($685 million; €576.8 million) hard-cap in January last year, doubling its previous raise. The fund took four months to close and is targeting a gross multiple of 3x and gross internal rate of return of 25 percent.

Limited partners include Fresno County Employees’ Retirement Association, which committed $7.5 million, according to Secondaries Investor data.

“We don’t have that many bankers in the team,” Verdane partner Staffan Mörndal told Secondaries Investor in April. “Our skill set is more around trying to help companies grow with operational questions than it is to maximise short-term cashflows with one solution.”

Last November, the firm closed a restructuring process on the 2009-vintage Verdane Capital VII. Adams Street Partners led the deal along with Flexstone Partners and LGT Capital Partners.