Macoun pointed to "indigestion" at the large end of the private equity market, where the likes of PEP and CHAMP had raised a lot of money in the good times up to 2007, but were now facing a paucity of deals – yet were too large to make worthwhile deals in the mid-market sector, which he said remained under-competed.

Pinnacle IM will own 30 per cent of the new private equity business, with the investment team holding the balance. Cook and Ludemann plan to recruit more staff once they have raised the $300 million.

Cook said the motivation for leaving AMP was that its mid-market funds were fully invested and now well into their ‘harvesting’ stage. He and Ludemann also wanted to take full advantage of the cyclical sweet spot for valuations in the sector.

The pair came to know Macoun better during the Runge transaction, for which Pinnacle IM’s parent Wilson HTM performed corporate finance work.

Pinnacle Private Equity is the sixth boutique to be backed with capital, marketing and admin support from Pinnacle Investment Management. (The others are Australian equity managers Hyperion, Plato and Solaris; global LPT manager Resolution Capital; and infrastructure shop Palisade.)

As such, the group has hired an additional distribution executive in Andrew Findlay, who spent the previous five and a half years at Macquarie and was head of product for its Professional Series group of external funds managers. Findlay will work with Adrian Whittingham in Sydney and Andrew Chambers in Melbourne.