PCG affiliate to set up shop in Singapore

California-based gatekeeper PCG Asset Management will open its first non-US office in Singapore in early 2009 and has hired Jean-Noël Odier as a managing director to focus on international business development and establish the Asian office.

Odier joins the firm prom BNP Paribas in Hong Kong, where he was in charge of developing the wealth management platform for high net worth individuals and family offices in the Asia Pacific. Prior to that, he was the chief financial officer of Xytis Pharmaceuticals, a Swiss venture-backed company.

He has also worked at the private equity division of US Trust, where he was vice president and focused on direct and fund investments, and at Lombard Odier in Switzerland, where he reviewed the company’s direct and fund investments.

“Jean-Noël brings experience at all levels of the private equity value chain: fund investment, direct

Jean-Noël Odier

investment and entrepreneurship — in addition to his most recent role doing business development Asia,” PCG Asset Management president and chief executive officer David Fann said in a statement.

Headquartered in La Jolla, California, PCG AM manages assets of about $15 billion (€10.2 billion). It is focused exclusively on private equity and has committed more than $27 billion though advisory and discretionary arrangements. It has 45 professionals and offices in San Diego, Boston and New York.
It counts among its clients large US pension funds such as the California Public Employees' Retirement System. In March, PCG AM hired Thomas Bernhardt as a senior vice president and head of research from CTC Consulting, a Banc of America subsidiary.

PCG AM is an affiliate of gatekeeper Pacific Corporate Group; it was was established in February 2007 as an independent platform, in which a handful of its employees will ultimately own up to a 50 percent stake. This followed a series of high-level departures from PCG in 2006, including several senior management members who went on to found advisory firm StepStone Group. 

Earlier this month, SVG Advisers, the private equity fund management business of UK-based SVG Capital, opened an office in Singapore as well. The firm also closed a $200 million Asia-dedicated fund of funds and hired Khim Tan from Hermes Private Equity to directs Asian activities. 

Sydney-based placement agent Diversus Investment Advisors this week opened an office in Hong Kong, and hired a principal, Vincent Pun, to lead its East Asian business.