Private Equity News & Analysis

MGPE man to build placement firm

Former MGPE director Colin Brown has set up Transparent Capital, a UK-based placement and advisory firm which has already secured a mandate from Lexington Partners.

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Colin Brown, a former director and placement agent at Morgan Grenfell Private Equity, has left the company to build his own placement and advisory services business.

 

Transparent Capital, a London-based firm, will look to provide fundraising services for a select number of private equity firms as well as providing investor relations services to GPs.

 

Transparent Capital will seek to attract a number of non-competing private equity firms as clients, and has already secured a mandate from US secondary specialist Lexington Partners.

 

Brown enters a competitive market for placement agents and advisors, with an increasing number of firms positioning themselves as placement service providers. Assisting general partners in their fundraising is lucrative business, with placement agents being able to charge up to four per cent of total funds raised in fees.

 

Market practitioners estimate that there are currently over 100 fundraising consultants competing for GP mandates, making it difficult terrain to negotiate in the current climate, especially for new entrants who have yet to build a track record of successfully placing limited partnership interests with investors.