Key Takeaways:
DC Advisory's entire European private equity secondaries team has departed over the past year, marking the latest retrenchment in a corner of the advisory market that had been a key growth bet for the Daiwa Securities unit.
DC Advisory's European GP secondaries unit has lost all three of its managing directors in the past year, the latest sign that banks are pulling back from advising on the buying and selling of pre-existing private equity commitments.
"DC Advisory had viewed secondaries as a key potential growth area and hired Sammartino in April 2023 to bolster its efforts," according to the firm's regulatory filings and prior statements reviewed by WSJ Pro.
Sabina Sammartino, who previously spent eight years at Mercury Capital Advisors leading its secondaries practice, was the most recent to leave. She joined DC Advisory in April 2023 shortly after the bank added London-based Michael Wieczorek and Paris-based Ludovic Douge as managing directors. Both Douge and Wieczorek exited last year, with Wieczorek joining UBS in October, according to regulatory filings.
The disbanding comes even as global secondaries volumes hit an estimated $233 billion last year, up 53% from 2024, according to Lazard. The disconnect between surging deal flow and advisory retrenchment suggests the market is consolidating around a handful of dominant players while smaller banks struggle to compete.
The departures at DC Advisory follow a similar pullback at Investec, which recently shuttered its GP-led advisory business less than three years after launch following a string of senior departures at its London office. The South African bank's exit from the space underscores the challenge boutique advisory firms face in building sustainable secondaries practices against larger, more established competitors.
Secondaries Boom Masks Advisory Squeeze
The secondaries market — where investors buy and sell pre-existing commitments to private market funds — has grown rapidly as buyout shops and their limited partners take a more active approach to portfolio management and liquidity. GP-led secondaries, which largely comprise continuation vehicles, have proven particularly popular as private-equity firms struggle to exit investments as dealmaking uncertainty persists.
Yet the advisory landscape is bifurcating. While global deal volumes surged past $200 billion for the first time last year, the revenue pool for mid-tier advisers is being squeezed by a handful of dominant players. Evercore, Jefferies and PJT Partners have all expanded their secondaries advisory teams in recent years, while boutique banks and placement agents that entered the space during the boom are now reassessing their commitments.
DC Advisory, the corporate finance arm of Japanese securities giant Daiwa Securities, had positioned secondaries as a strategic growth area. The hiring spree in early 2023 — adding Sammartino, Wieczorek and Douge within months of each other — signaled an ambition to capture market share in Europe's fast-growing GP-led advisory market. With all three now gone and no replacements announced, that strategy appears to have stalled.
The departures also highlight the talent war in secondaries advisory. Wieczorek's move to UBS shows that larger banks with deeper balance sheets are poaching senior talent from smaller competitors. For DC Advisory, rebuilding the team will require not just hiring but convincing the market it remains committed to the space.
DC Advisory declined to comment on the departures or its future plans for the secondaries business.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
