APG hires WP Global executive for private equity(2)

APG, the Dutch pension administrator that sold its stake in AlpInvest in 2011, has hired former fund of funds executive Greg Jania as head of private equity fund investments as the institution works to build up its in-house private equity team. APG confirmed his hiring.

Jania has worked at Chicago-based fund of funds WP Global Partners since 2005. Prior to WP Global, Jania worked as a senior vice president in the investment management group of GE Equity, according to his biography that had been on WP Global’s web site.

Jania, who started at APG Asset Management US on 1 February, will work in New York under APG’s global head of private equity, Iain Leigh, who the pension administrator hired from AlpInvest last year. APG and fellow Dutch pension administrator PGGM sold AlpInvest to The Carlyle Group in 2011.

Greg Jania

APG’s exact plans for its in-house private equity efforts are not clear; the firm declined to disclose details, other than to say: “In the past, APG outsourced its whole private equity programme to AlpInvest. In the future, APG will address some segments of the private equity market using its internal management team, but will continue to partner with AlpInvest for other parts of the programme,” according to an APG spokesperson.

APG declined to discuss which segments of the private equity market will be handled in-house and which will stay outsourced with AlpInvest.

APG and PGGM both committed at the time of the sale to invest €10 billion with AlpInvest until 2015. APG has already exceeded the amount it pledged to commit to AlpInvest, the spokesperson said. PGGM also has been developing its in-house private equity group. The administrator hired former Gilde Buy Out Partners executive Eric-Jan Vink as its head of private equity in March 2012.

APG manages assets totaling about €325 billion (as of the end of 2012) for seven pension funds in the Netherlands.

In January, APG confirmed it had hired Marta Jankovic as senior sustainability and governance specialist. Jankovic will be responsible for signing off on all the environment, social and governance aspects of all new investment proposals in private equity, hedge funds and other illiquid asset classes. Jankovic also will develop processes to monitor existing investments on ESG performance.