Private equity investor Auda International has acquired general partnership interests and the management of three secondary funds from Thomas Weisel Global Growth Partners LLC, a subsidiary of Stifel Financial Corp.
As part of the transaction, Christian Munafo, who has been involved in managing the Funds since their inception, has joined the Auda team effective immediately. Apart from continuing to manage the Funds, Munafo will be responsible for further developing Auda’s existing secondaries program.
“We are delighted to complement our existing portfolio of managed secondary funds by assuming the management of the Funds from Thomas Weisel Global Growth Partners. Given their strong historical results and promising prospects, we are confident that the Funds will be a meaningful addition to Auda’s current asset base,” says Dr Ernest Boles (pictured), CEO of Auda. “Bringing Munafo onboard maintains continuity with both the Funds’ investors and the underlying portfolios themselves. Munafo is a seasoned professional and our relationship dates back to 2008, when he was responsible for a direct secondary transaction in a company where Auda was an active co-investor. We are glad to have him on our team.”
Munafo is joining Auda from Stifel, where he most recently led the secondary investments program. During his 10 years at Stifel (including his tenure at Thomas Weisel Partners Group, Inc, which was acquired by Stifel in 2010), Munafo was personally responsible for sourcing and executing 35 transactions representing approximately USD150 million in commitments. In connection with these transactions, Munafo was responsible for an additional USD50 million in syndicated commitments. Apart from traditional limited partnership secondary transactions, Munafo has focused primarily on complex structured transactions, including the acquisition of secondary direct portfolios, fund recapitalisations, and purchases of single assets on a secondary basis. Munafo began his career as an investment banker in New York at Banc of America Securities before joining GoldenEye International, where he was mainly responsible for capital raising for venture capital and growth equity backed companies.
