BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HarbourVest Partners, a global private markets asset manager, today announced that Karen Simeone has joined the firm as a Managing Director. Based in Boston, Karen will join Managing Directors Jamie Athanasoulas and Peter Lipson to expand the firm’s private credit business, and specifically HarbourVest’s senior credit investing capabilities.
“Institutional investors are allocating to private credit strategies at a robust pace, and we are building a strong team to provide our clients with the type of credit exposure they seek,” said Peter Wilson, Managing Director, HarbourVest. “Karen’s 20 years of credit experience will enable HarbourVest to continue adding to our private credit capabilities in both commingled fund and separate account formats.”
The credit business leverages HarbourVest’s decades of experience and relationships with private equity general partners to offer tailored financing solutions. HarbourVest’s private credit program complements the firm’s existing business practices, offering investors access to a new asset class characterized by differentiated credit deal flow, capital preservation, and current income.
Prior to joining HarbourVest, Karen was a Managing Director at TCW Direct Lending (formerly Regiment Capital’s direct lending arm), where she was responsible for all aspects of investing in secured debt to middle-market borrowers, including sourcing, evaluating, structuring, underwriting, and managing secured loans. Karen’s previous experience includes middle-market debt investing at Stairway Capital and positions in the leveraged finance and high yield groups at J.P. Morgan. Karen received a BS from Georgetown University and studied at the London School of Economics.
“Karen’s industry perspective, network and expertise in senior credit and restructuring rounds out our private credit business across the credit stack,” said Peter Lipson, Managing Director, HarbourVest. “The private credit asset class continues to grow in size and scope, both industry-wide and at our firm, and Karen’s experience will complement well what we have built with our credit team thus far.”
“I’m thrilled to be joining such a talented and growing team that is well positioned for expansion,” said Simeone. “This is a great opportunity to continue to build a platform that benefits investors through access to differentiated deal flow and offers private equity sponsors tailored debt and equity financing solutions. Given its breadth of relationships with buyout sponsors, I believe HarbourVest offers a unique model within the private credit universe.”
The combination of private equity sponsors’ need for lending partners to complete deals and institutional investor appetite for private credit allocations to capture yield has led to growing demand for this asset class. HarbourVest has committed more than $550 million to 32 private credit direct investments since 20031. In 2014, after years of making private credit investments through various programs with broader mandates, HarbourVest created a dedicated program focused on junior credit investments complemented by an equity component. HarbourVest closed this dedicated private credit fund, Mezzanine Income Fund I, at its hard cap of $375 million in April 2017.
For more information about HarbourVest’s private credit business, please visit https://www.harbourvest.com/expertise/private-credit
ABOUT HARBOURVEST
HarbourVest is an independent, global private markets asset manager with more than 35 years of experience and more than $50 billion in assets under management. The Firm’s powerful global platform offers clients investment opportunities through primary fund investments, secondary investments, and direct co-investments in commingled funds or separately managed accounts. HarbourVest has more than 400 employees, including more than 100 investment professionals across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This global team has committed more than $34 billion to newly-formed funds, completed over $19 billion in secondary purchases, and invested over $8 billion directly in operating companies. Partnering with HarbourVest, clients have access to customized solutions, longstanding relationships, actionable insights, and proven results.
These materials do not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy interests in any fund or any other investment product sponsored by HarbourVest Partners L.P. or its affiliates (“HarbourVest”), hereafter referred to as the “Fund”. Any offering of interests in the Fund will be made by means of delivery of a confidential Private Placement Memorandum or similar materials that contain a description of the material terms of such investment and subscriptions will be accepted solely pursuant to definitive documentation. These materials do not purport to contain all the information relevant to evaluating an investment in the Fund. No sale will be made in any jurisdiction in which the offer, solicitation, or sale is not authorized or to any person to whom it is unlawful to make the offer, solicitation, or sale. Offers and sales of interests in the Fund will not be registered under the laws of any jurisdiction and will be made solely to “qualified purchasers” as defined in the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. These materials are highly confidential and may not be reproduced or redistributed in any format without the express written approval of HarbourVest. An investment in the Fund involves a high degree of risk and therefore should be undertaken only by prospective investors capable of evaluating the risks of the Fund and bearing the risks such an investment represents. There can be no assurance that the Fund will be able to achieve its investment objectives or that the investors will receive a return on their capital.
For additional legal and regulatory disclosures, please refer to http://www.harbourvest.com/important-legal-disclosures.
1 Source: HarbourVest as of June 30, 2018. Includes all private credit direct investments made by HarbourVest since January 1, 2003, excluding certain custom accounts that may make investments outside of HarbourVest’s core private credit direct investment strategy, (e.g., industry, sourcing, return profile). Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
