Macquarie opens HK private equity office

The Macquarie Funds Management (MFM) alternatives division has hired its first staff in Asia, luring two private equity analysts away from Deutsche Bank to its Hong Kong office last week.

Hugh Dyus, who worked for PPM Ventures prior to Deutsche Bank, joins MFM with 17 years experience investing directly in Asian private equity and is a co-investment specialist, according to alternatives division director John Brakey. Wendy Xhu, meanwhile, has worked for private equity fund-of-funds in Asia since 1997. Dyus and Xhu will report to Brakey, who said having people on the ground in Asia was vital as the region’s private equity managers began to have more impact on the Australian scene. “We need to understand more about these pan-Asian funds that are investing down here, like Newbridge which paid $1.3 billion for the Myer department stores, Affinity which bought the Loscam pallet business and CCMP Capital which bought the Waco scaffolding business for $1.2 billion in January,” Brakey said. “These funds are having a big impact on Australian private equity in terms of prices paid and deal flow, and it’s too hard to follow them all from Sydney.” Brakey said the Asian alternatives team would contribute to MFM’s global coverage of private equity managers, as well as investigate co- investments and a regional fund-of-funds. It is the alternatives division’s second office overseas, following the establishment of a three-man US team last September. That trio has so far created the Macquarie Clean Technology Fund, a fund-of- funds which has already received a $20 million commitment from an undisclosed Australian super fund, according to Brakey. Its two underlying managers so far are Rockport, a top-tier venture capital firm, and Carlyle/Riverstone Renewables, an investor in late- stage green energy generation projects.