Private equity firm TA Associates has opened its second Asia office in Hong Kong and hired Edward Sippel and Jason Tan to man it.
Sippel will take on the post of managing principal for Asia-Pacific. He has 15 years of experience in private equity investing in Asia and joins from Quadrangle Group where he headed the Asia operations, which involved opening Quadrangle’s Hong Kong office in 2008.
Quadrangle is a private equity investor with a focus on media, communications and information providers. Sippel earlier worked at TVG Capital Partners where he focused on investments in the technology, media and telecom industries in Asia. He has also done a stint at the Asia Infrastructure Fund (AIF Capital), a private equity firm based in Hong Kong.
Jason Tan, who joins TA Associates as director of China, was previously a director in the Asia-Pacific group of Summit Partners and helped the growth capital firm execute deals in the region. He has also worked at Crimson Investment and Bain & Co. Tan will report to Sippel.
TA Associates has a capital base of $16 billion and offices in Boston, Menlo Park, London and Mumbai. It takes both minority and control stakes in companies it invests in. An equity investment by TA is typically in the range of $60 million to $500 million, while subordinated debt investments range from $10 million to $75 million. TA has an industry focus on the technology, financial services, healthcare, business services and consumer sectors.
The private equity firm’s first foray into Asia was through an office in Mumbai. Its investments in India include stakes in: Dr Lal PathLabs, a chain of pathology laboratories; Idea Cellular, a mobile operator; and Micromax Informatics, a mobile handset provider.
“Fifteen years of living and working in the region have afforded [Sippel] a deep understanding of the complexities and cultural nuances of deal making in Asia, making him ideally suited to lead our team and activities in the region,” said Kevin Landry, chairman of TA Associates, in a written statement. “Opening an office in Hong Kong is part of our long-established strategy of being a global growth investor, and we will follow the same investing strategy that has so successfully transferred to Europe and India.”
