Zurich-based private equity fund of funds manager Adveq has announced the closing of Adveq Opportunity II with commitments of USD 457.5 million and the completion of its registration with
Zurich-based private equity fund of funds manager Adveq has announced the closing of Adveq Opportunity II with commitments of USD 457.5 million and the completion of its registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment adviser under the US Investment Advisers Act of 1940.
Adveq Opportunity II, the second fund of funds in Adveq’s Opportunity programme, exceeded its original target. The programme was set up in May 2005 to pursue special and investment strategies outside the traditional private equity sectors of venture capital and buyouts in the US. The first fund in the programme, Adveq Opportunity I, closed in 2005 with commitments of USD170m and is now fully committed.
‘Following the opening of our US office last September and the opening of the Beijing office in May, becoming a registered investment adviser with the SEC is an important milestone in Adveq’s continued growth and development as a global investment management company,’ says managing director Bruno E. Raschle. ‘It will significantly enhance our capability to grow our business internationally in terms of both raising and investing capital.’
Meanwhile, Adveq has promoted senior executives Philippe Bucher, Nils Rode, and Lee Gardella to the position of managing director and has appointed Kang Pan as an executive director.
Bucher, who joined Adveq in 2005, has 10 years of professional experience including working as an auditor of financial services companies at Arthur Andersen and in corporate finance at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Before joining Adveq in 2005, Rode was a vice-president with a US-based private equity-backed IT and telecommunications company. A software entrepreneur from 1983 to 1992, he subsequently worked in the equity fund management business at Deutsche Bank’s DWS Investments and was a management consultant with McKinsey.
Gardella, who joined Adveq last year, was a managing director leading the private markets group for CTC Consulting, the family office investment advisory subsidiary of US Trust in Stamford, Connecticut, having previously worked for US Trust’s private equity and alternative investment divisions. Earlier he was an associate at the Edison Venture Fund and Wilshire Associates and a treasury analyst at National Steel Corporation.
Pan, joined Adveq earlier this year, having previously been head of business development for China at NYSE Euronext and worked for Industrial and Commercial Bank of China as chief representative of its London representative office, and then as a managing director and member of the board of directors for ICBC (London).
‘These appointments come at an important time in Adveq’s development, bringing a broad range of experience and expertise to the firm,’ Raschle says. ‘Philippe, Lee, Nils and Kang have already made significant contributions to our business and are valuable additions to the existing management team.’
Founded in 1997, Adveq has USD3.6bn in assets under management for a clientele of largely international institutional investors. The firm has offices in Zurich, Frankfurt, New York and Beijing, and invests with more than 120 private equity fund managers worldwide.
