Houlihan Lokey announced a major expansion of its Private Funds Group to establish the Group as one of the preeminent global private capital advisory platforms.
The firm has agreed to acquire Triago Management Development (Triago), a global independent advisory firm with core capabilities in primary fund and direct investment fundraising, general partner (GP) and limited partner (LP) led secondary transactions, and providing strategic advisory services to both GPs and LPs.
The Triago team will join Houlihan Lokey’s Private Funds Group (PFG), led by Global Co-Heads Andy Lund and Cristina Forcina Westermann. Triago CEO Matt Swain will join as Head of Direct Placements and Secondaries, a new practice within PFG. Triago’s founder and chairman, Antoine Dréan, will join as Chairman Emeritus of the Private Funds Group.
“The PFG platform and the range of services we can offer financial sponsors and limited partners across all our businesses is more comprehensive and more competitive than ever. Joining our new partners in PFG and across the firm means we can continue to deliver the outstanding results that our clients demand,” said Mr. Swain. “Houlihan Lokey’s extraordinary depth of private equity relationships, existing PFG capabilities, and highly successful Capital Markets Group all make the firm an excellent home for us and, more importantly, for our global client base,” added Mr. Dréan.
As a result of the acquisition, Houlihan Lokey’s Private Funds Group will be one of the few truly fully integrated advisory platforms that can offer clients primary, secondary, direct, and GP advisory services on a global basis. The global PFG team now comprises more than 70 financial professionals with senior officers in London, New York, Paris, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Frankfurt, and Dubai.
“This acquisition continues PFG’s significant growth since its establishment in 2018, immediately creating additional scale and expertise in U.S. primary placements as well as substantially growing our secondary offering capabilities. We are particularly excited to expand PFG’s coverage into direct transactions, a segment of the private equity market that Matt and his team effectively dominate and has tremendous growth potential. This will further bolster our ability to provide our clients with a compelling array of fully integrated capital-raising solutions relevant to GPs and LPs at any point in their investment lifecycle,” commented Ms. Forcina Westermann. “In addition, the combination of PFG’s enhanced capabilities with Houlihan Lokey’s broader sponsor-centric platform will uniquely position us to advise our clients in a more strategic way than traditional placement agent firms.”
“Our new partners recognize that a truly best-in-class, client-centric advisor to the private equity universe must deliver a truly comprehensive array of services, and they also recognize our goal to firmly establish Houlihan Lokey as that advisor. It reflects how deeply a client-centric focus is ingrained in each firm’s corporate culture and why this combination is such an excellent fit,” commented Scott Adelson, Co-President and Global Co-Head of Corporate Finance.
“Much more importantly, with these additions, we now have effectively achieved that goal. With PFG’s suite of services alongside our private capital advisory team, deep financial sponsors coverage group, and our other partners across the firm, we believe that we are now among the absolute best advisors to general and limited partners in professional services.”
The transaction, signed December 20, 2023, is expected to be completed in the first half of 2024 pending regulatory approval.