Private Equity News & Analysis

APG recruits sustainability specialist

The appointment of ex-SVG exec Marta Jankovic comes as PGGM, a fellow Dutch pension manager, continues to build up its own private equity management team.

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APG Asset Management, the Dutch pension administrator, has appointed Marta Jankovic as senior sustainability and governance specialist, according to an email she sent to friends and family. A pension spokesman confirmed her appointment.

Her role will involve signing off on the ESG aspects of all new investment proposals in private equity, hedge funds and other illiquid asset classes, the spokesman said. She will also develop processes to monitor existing investments on their ESG performance.

Marta Jankovic
Jankovic joins from SVG Advisers, a London-based funds of funds, where her position as legal counsel led her to focus on the formation, structuring and development of private equity products, along with legal advice in relation to new fund investments. Prior to joining SVG in 2007, she was part of the fund formation group team at SJ Berwin. She qualified as a solicitor in 2002.

She joins APG in the wake of changes to its private equity investment programme, although a spokesman noted there was no link between the sustainability hire and any modifications to the private equity programme. Last year, APG and fellow Dutch pension manager PGGM sold their stake in AlpInvest Partners, the fund of funds through which they traditionally gained the bulk of their private equity exposure. Before being sold to the Carlyle Group, Alpinvest had invested exclusively on behalf of APG and PGGM. While AlpInvest has since expanded its client base to third parties, APG and PGGM remain significant investors in private equity through Alpinvest as both funds agreed at the time of sale to collectively invest €10 billion with Alpinvest until 2015.

It is unclear whether APG is now embarking on a similar strategy to PGGM, which is to build up its own in-house private equity investment capabilities. 

APG and PGGM together manage more than €440 billion worth of assets. PGGM allocates 6 per cent of its funds to private equity, amounting to a total of €7.5 billion.