Bahrain Press Release

Press Release

Credit Suisse Asset Management’s Private Fund Group Announces Formation of Directs & Co-Investments Group

Credit Suisse Asset Management's Private Fund Group (PFG), one of the largest integrated global placement agents and advisory groups, today announced the formation of its Directs & Co-Investments Group, an extension of PFG's current primary and secondary advisory business.

The Directs & Co-Investments Group will advise and assist PFG clients in the structuring and placement of private direct investments into the institutional investor market. This initiative will be led by Credit Suisse veteran Managing Director Paul Van Hook, who has been with PFG since 2008.

To further bolster PFG’s efforts in the space, Credit Suisse Asset Management has appointed Imran Hameed as a Director in the Directs & Co-Investments Group. Mr. Hameed joins the bank from Mercury Capital Advisors, a New York-based private equity placement firm, where he spent the past five years as a key member of the transaction team placing institutional capital for clients. Mr. Hameed also worked in the investment banking group at Rothschild for eight years.

“Since its inception, Credit Suisse’s Private Fund Group has sought to provide Limited Partners and General Partners with a diversified set of private placement services and secondary solutions,” said Kevin Naughton, Co-Head of the Private Fund Group at Credit Suisse Asset Management. “Direct investing has become an increasingly significant part of investors’ approach, as they seek direct access to assets and portfolios to enhance returns and complement their existing investment strategies.”

Mr. Van Hook commented, “The Directs & Co-Investments Group will capitalize on this significant industry trend, and we look forward to providing our clients with this expanded service offering, alongside our existing primary funds and secondary advisory businesses.” He added, “Imran has invaluable expertise originating, structuring and negotiating successful placements of capital, which will help us grow our Directs & Co-Investments platform in PFG and help our clients meet their direct investment needs.”

Since 2010, the PFG has completed 26 transactions in the Directs & Co-Investments space across $4.2 billion of total interests transacted upon.

About the Private Fund Group

The Private Fund Group is part of Credit Suisse Asset Management within the International Wealth Management division of Credit Suisse. The group offers products across a broad spectrum of investment classes, including equities, fixed income and alternative investments. As one of the largest, most cohesive and experienced global private placement and secondary solutions teams in the industry, PFG has raised over $500 billion for 366 funds since 1994. With locally-based professionals in New York, London, Hong Kong, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Sydney and Seoul, PFG raises private capital from investors worldwide, including public and private pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, banks, insurance companies, fund of funds, consultants and high-net-worth individuals and families.