Ardian hires Greenhill secondaries Young Gun – exclusive

A Greenhill advisory professional who featured in Secondaries Investor’s Young Guns Class of 2018 has been hired by Ardian.

Michael Hu has joined the funds of funds team at Ardian’s Singapore office as a director, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. He will work on the full spectrum of investment activities in Asia-Pacific with a focus on secondaries.

Hu spent five years in the secondaries advisory team in Greenhill’s Hong Kong office where he was most recently a principal, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that he was in the private equity team at Australia’s Queensland Investment Corporation working across primaries, secondaries, co-investments and directs.

Hu ranked 11th in the Young Guns list last year. Deals he has worked on include the sale of $1.7 billion worth of stakes by Singapore’s GIC, $900 million of stakes by Australian super Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation and a $500 million portfolio by fund of funds Asia Alternatives Management.

Greenhill’s Hong Kong capital advisory team is led by managing director Stephen Sloan, who splits his time with the Dallas office. The firm is not planning to hire a direct replacement for Hu, Secondaries Investor understands.

In February, Ardian hired Kanji Takenaka from HarbourVest Partners to lead its new Tokyo office. In December it opened a South Korea office led by director Won Ha, who moved across from the Singapore funds-of-funds team.

Greenhill declined to comment. Ardian did not respond to a request for comment by press time.