Paul Capital, a leading global investment firm focused on the private equity secondary market, today said that it has retained private equity industry veterans Anand Sunderji and Akshat Shukla as regional sourcing agents for India. Both Sunderji and Shukla will be responsible for sourcing and evaluating secondary private equity transactions in India.
Sunderji was a director of the private equity fund of funds operations at Guggenheim Capital Management (Asia) in Mumbai. Prior to this, he co-led the Asian fund of funds operation for Swiss-based Adveq Management AG where he was responsible for private equity fund investments in India, China, Japan and Australia. Shukla, prior to joining Paul Capital, managed the Indian investment strategy for Adveq Management AG. He previously worked in leveraged finance at ING Bank in London and was a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers in India.
"We continue to anticipate increasing activity in the global secondary market and are excited to further deepen our geographical expertise within Asia as we expand our commitment to emerging markets,” said Lucian Wu, Managing Director and Co-Head of Paul Capital’s Asia team. “Anand and Akshat have built an extensive network across the Indian private equity ecosystem that will enhance our transaction sourcing efforts and we are excited to have them as our representatives in India,” added Bryon Sheets, a San Francisco-based Partner at Paul Capital.
“To succeed in providing customized liquidity solutions to sellers and understanding the portfolios we look to buy, we believe that local knowledge and expertise is absolutely critical,” said Jason Sambanju, Managing Director and Co-Head of Asia.
In addition to Paul Capital, Coller Capital and Adam Street Partners have been particularly active in the Indian private equity secondary markets. The private equity secondary market (also often called second hand LP interests) refers to the buying and selling of pre-existing investor commitments to private equity and other alternative investment funds.