Audax Group has hired two executives from the DWS Group to help outline a new strategy for investing in second-hand shares of private equity assets, according to people familiar with the matter.

Kumber Husain, Americas director and head of secondary private equity operations at DWS, and Daniel Green, director and head of the company’s Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, join Boston-based investment firm, The People said. Audax has made several other offers to build the team, these folks said.

DWS was part of Deutsche Bank before the asset manager’s IPO in 2018.

Husain joined DWS in 2018 to source and execute secondary, co-investments and direct investments. Prior to that, he was a portfolio manager and member of the investment committee at Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, according to DWS’s website.

According to the website, he has also worked at New York-based private equity firm WP Global Partners and Swiss Reinsurance Company, in the business development group.

Prior to joining DWS in 2018, Green was a senior director at investment consultancy Meketa Investment Group, where he led the group’s private equity and real asset investment activities in the Emea region, according to his biography on the DWS website. He previously worked at Greenpark Capital, a UK-based manager of secondary private equity funds.
Audax is an early mover among mid-market private equity firms in developing a secondary investment strategy, which will help the company support sponsor-led deals by fund managers looking to expand their hold on prized assets. Larger asset managers such as Apollo and TPG have enticed investment professionals from other asset managers to devise similar secondary strategies.

According to three secondary buyers and two investment advisors, these companies are looking to capitalize on the opportunities and challenges arising from the dramatic growth in both the number and volume of sponsor-led secondary transactions over the past two years.

According to a report by investment bank Jefferies, secondary transactions led by sponsors or general partners accounted for 52% of the secondary transaction volume of $132 billion in 2021. Sponsors marketed more than 100 such transactions, which accounted for $68 billion in revenue. volume, and volume is expected to continue this year, the report said