Horizon21 infrastructure head goes to Swiss Re

Serge-Alexandre Lauper, the head of infrastructure at Swiss alternative investment manager Horizon21, has been appointed the new co-head of the private equity business of re-insurance giant Swiss Re, according to a statement from Swiss Re.

Serge-Alexandre Lauper

The career move coincides with an agreement by Swiss Re to repurchase the private equity business of Horizon21, which encompasses fund-of-funds for private equity, real estate and infrasructure investment strategies. The deal closed two weeks ago, transferring about 30 employees to Swiss Re, Lauper among them.

Swiss Re previously owned the business until 2006, when it was sold to Horizon21.

At Swiss Re, Lauper will serve as the co-head of investment management for Swiss Re Private Equity Partners, focusing on infrastrucure and other real asset investments. His co-head, Nathalie von Niederhausern, will focus on private equity investments.

At Horizon21 Lauper was in charge of the firm’s infrastructure investment business, which included a fund-of-funds for infrastructure: H21 Infrastructure I. The fund-of-funds reached a first close on $470 million in March 2008, according to previous remarks by Lauper to InfrastructureInvestor.

Previous plans to launch a second infrastructure fund-of-funds will not be affected by the sale to Swiss Re, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

The sale also does not change the composition of the firm's unerlying base of limited partners, which are primarily pension funds and insurance companies in German-speaking countries.

Founded in 2004 and based in Pfäffikon, Switzerland, Horizon21 expanded its platform into infrastructure in 2007, while Lauper was hired to head its infrastructure investment group in 2008.