SecondMarket Goes Illiquid in Asia
One would think the people running SecondMarket already had enough on their plates. The New York-based company, which launched as an online marketplace for buying and selling illiquid alternative assets, now covers everything from mortgage-backed securities to bankruptcy claims. But on Tuesday SecondMarket announced it has a new item on its agenda: Expanding into Asia. To that end, it has raised $15 million in Series B financing from the Hong Kong-based Li Ka Shing Foundation (LKSF) and Dunearn Investments, a subsidiary of Singapore-based Temasek Holdings. The company is setting up an office in Hong Kong and plans to spend the bulk of the year researching its next move. I spoke earlier today to Jeremy Smith, SecondMarket’s chief strategy officer, about the company’s rationale for expanding overseas and what’s up in general in the world of illiquid assets – in particular the buying and selling of private company stock:
