Yarra hires from Rothschild

Yarra Capital Management has hired former Goldman Sachs head of equities David Acton to run its first private market equity offering.

Acton has joined Yarra's Australian equities team as portfolio manager to lead the Yarra Private Capital Discovery Fund.

The new Fund will seek to invest in the equity or convertible notes of unlisted companies with clear plans to IPO or trade sale within a three-year time horizon, building a diversified portfolio of 10-20 high-quality companies varied by sector, size and duration to exit, across Australia and New Zealand.

The closed-end vehicle seeks to raise a minimum of A$100 million plus from institutional and wholesale investors.

Acton has been a senior advisor at Rothschild Australia in equity capital markets since 2017. Before that, he had spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs working as an equity specialist advising institutional clients.

Previous roles include executive vice president at Ord-Minnett and analyst at Prudential Bache Securities

Yarra chairman, and head of Australian Equities, called the new offering a natural extension of the firm's existing Australian equities franchise.

"We are delighted to be bringing David - our former Goldman Sachs colleague - into the business as a portfolio manager. He is an outstanding hire for our growing business and the right person to lead this new capability."

Acton said with IPO markets effectively closed and businesses staying private for longer, he looks forward to investing in high-quality private businesses that require patient capital to help achieve their growth ambitions at a compelling point in the cycle.

"Being able to access and leverage the analytical power and research knowledge of Yarra's 13 other equity market professionals is unique and critically important to our due diligence process."