Placement agent and investment advisory firm Mercury Capital Advisors has opened its fourth Asia office, and its first in India, a media report said.
Alan Pardee, managing partner and founder, Mercury Capital, told alternative assets news platform Private Equity International that the firm is in the process of appointing a vice-president and an associate at its recently-launched New Delhi office.
Mercury Capital Origination vice-president Arpit Khandelwal and Mayank Swarup, an associate, are likely to run the firm’s India operations.
Mayank had joined Mercury Capital Advisors in January and is based out of Gurgaon, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before joining Mercury Capital, he was an associate for private equity fundraising at investment bank Hycroft.
When contacted, Michael Ricciardi, CEO and managing partner of Mercury Capital Advisors, told VCCircle in an email response: "I would like to confirm this development."
The advisory firm was founded in 2009 following a spinout from Merrill Lynch.
Mercury Capital Advisors have offices in New York, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, London, Tokyo, Singapore, Palm Beach and Dubai. It has a team of 50 fundraising professionals across the globe, according to the firm’s LinkedIn page.
Mercury Capital is a full-service placement agent. It provides various services to alternative investment platforms for raising money from investors. The services offered by the firm include advising general partners on their portfolio and strategy, fund raising, secondary sale of assets and other related solutions.
The investment bank had advised Singapore-based special situations investment firm SSG Capital Management Group in raising its second and third fund – SSG Capital Partners II ($400 million) and SSG Capital Partners III ($915 million), according to its website.
The fund focusses on distressed investments in the Asia-Pacific region, including Greater China, India and Southeast Asia.