Pantheon brings placement agent in-house for client services

Private equity fund-of-funds Pantheon has hired a former placement agent for its client services team. Saverio Costa joins as a principal in Pantheon’s New York office, with responsibility for its East Coast clients.

Costa spent ten years with Benedetto Gartland & Company, a New York-based private placement agent, where he was a partner responsible for structuring private equity investment vehicles and raising capital from institutional investors.

As the SEC contemplates banning placement agents from soliciting US public pensions, and the private placement arms of several large banks have shut down, several placement agents have left for in-house positions at private equity firms.

In August, Actis hired Adam Turtle of Credit Suisse’s private placement group as a director in the firm’s investor relations and project management group. Also in August, one of CP Eaton’s senior capital raisers in Europe, Alex Walker, left to join one of the firm’s clients in Hong Kong.