Wagram Corporate Finance buys secondaries platform Secondcap

Paris-based investment bank Wagram Corporate Finance has acquired Secondcap, a provider of a platform for secondaries transactions called SecondaryNet.

“We started looking for a partner a year ago whose core business was to work with general partners,” Francois Gamblin, chief executive officer of Secondcap, told Secondaries Investor, noting that Secondcap has traditionally been more focused on limited partners.

“The idea is also to leverage Wagram’s international network, MidCap Alliance, to have access to GPs on the ground in all European countries.” Thanks to MidCap Alliance, Secondcap will be able to more easily share deals and identify new buyers. “The fact that Wagram is focused on GPs is extremely important to us,” Gamblin added.

The acquisition will also allow Wagram to expand its offerings to clients as the bank wasn’t previously involved in the secondaries market.

Secondcap was founded in 2010 to facilitate the transfer of interests in private funds between LPs and GPs in several markets including private equity, real estate and infrastructure.

Secondcap, which focuses mainly on small to mid-size secondaries transactions, has about 420 clients, 55 percent of which are in Europe and about a third in the US. While the acquisition will allow Secondcap to expand the size of transactions, Gamblin noted that it’s important to stick to its existing strategy. “There’s a huge demand on the buyside and sellers aren’t always well equipped,” he said.

With the acquisition, which closed in April, SecondCap has relocated its offices from London to Paris.

Transactions in the secondary market have reached new highs, with $45 billion of secondary assets traded in 2014. Since its creation, Secondcap has handled and advised on some $1.4 billion of secondary assets.