Investors

Exclusive: SVP loses senior operating director

The firm’s head of portfolio group, who held previous positions at Vision Capital and KKR, left the firm in December

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Johan van de Steen, senior operating director and head of portfolio group at Strategic Value Partners (SVP), an alternative investment firm that specialises in distressed opportunities, has departed the firm, PEI has learned.

Van de Steen has become head of portfolio at Renova Management in Zurich, according to his LinkedIn profile. Renova Group is a private business group that consists of asset management companies and direct and portfolio investment funds owning and managing assets in the metals, mining, chemical, construction, transport, energy, telecommunication, high-tech machine building, public utilities and financial sectors in Russia and abroad, according to Renova’s website.

Van de Steen, a well-known face on the European operating partner circuit, left SVP in December 2014, approximately a year after he joined.

He previously spent four years with Vision Capital, where he was a partner, a member of the investment and executive committees, and the head of global portfolio, which meant he was effectively overseeing all the firm's operational value creation efforts across its portfolio. He sat on the board of seven companies, including JDR Cables and Vitopel.

Prior to joining Vision, Van de Steen had been a Europe-based operating partner for KKR for seven years, working with companies like Alliance Boots and NXP. He began his career with Siemens, before moving to McKinsey & Company as a consultant. He then spent two years as chief executive of DR Technologies.

SVP declined to comment on Van de Steen’s departure. A source familiar with the matter said the firm is not hiring a direct replacement, but “continues to expand and develop its operational resources both with its full time employees and its pool of senior executive chairmen”.

SVP is an alternative investment firm that manages approximately $5 billion across hedge fund and private equity strategies. It employs around 100 people across its four main offices: Greenwich in Connecticut, London, Tokyo and Frankfurt. Last December the firm closed its third special situations fund on $1.31 billion, beating its $1 billion target.