Novalpina Capital

It’s not just hedge funds run by star traders that are attracting recruits from big investment banks. A new private equity fund, set up by two former TPG executives, has been recruiting from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Novalpina Capital, started by the former head of TPG in Europe, Stephen Peel, and Stefan Kowski, who was a principal at the firm in Hong Kong and latterly a managing director at Centerbridge Partners, has hired a handful of former bankers as it targets €1bn for a debut fund. Tobias Buck, who has worked for Goldman Sachs Principal Investment Area (PIA) for the past six years, has just joined Novalpina Capital as an investment professional. Buck joined Goldman Sachs in 2011 after completing a Masters degree in Business Administration at ESCP Europe. Novalpina brought in Bastian Lueken from Platinum Capital as the third founding partner in July. Mikael Betito, a former Goldman Sachs investment banking analyst who has spent the past two years at PE firm Oaktree Capital Management in Paris, has also joined as a principal. Novalpina now has seven employees and further down the tree, the PE firm has been hiring from U.S. investment banks. Leif Berger, an investment banking analyst who has worked at Morgan Stanley since 2014, has just joined as has Christopher Backes, who worked in the technology investment banking team at the U.S. investment bank. Aside from the investment banking connection, the commonality among the new recruits is that they all speak German, suggesting the fund will be looking to Europe for investments from its London base. There’s a proliferation of new private equity firms in London set up by former senior employees at large firms that could offer new job opportunities. The Builders Union, started by KKR’s former EMEA head of financial services Alexander Bruells and Marcus Bihler from Blackstone, has recently hired Perella Weinberg associate Laurynas Jankauskas. Meanwhile, KKR big hitters Kugan Sathuyandarajah and Dominic Murphy kick-started 8C Capital earlier this month and Philip Wack, a director at KKR, launched Moonlake Capital in July. Haroun van Hövell, the head of energy for EMEA at KKR, launched Fort Bay Capital earlier this year.