PAG to open New York office – Exclusive

PAG is expanding its US footprint with a new office in New York – its second location outside of the Asia-Pacific region.

Executive director David McGrath is understood to have relocated to New York from Hong Kong in early April to set up the new operations, although the office is not expected to open until the end of the summer.

McGrath, who has been with the firm for eight years, will initially be the sole employee in the office and will be working with PAG’s North American institutional investors across its three core businesses of private equity, real estate and absolute returns. The firm has an existing US office in Pasadena, California, which it opened a couple of years ago.

PAG Real Estate, which was established in 1997 as Secured Capital before merging with PAG in 2011, is led by managing partner Jon-Paul Toppino, who also is group president of PAG. The platform has a team of more 140 professionals in Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney. PAG Real Estate’s other partners include Jack Keese, Broderick Storie, Patrick Boot and Phi Le.

PAG raised $1.2 billion in the first close for its sixth opportunistic real estate fund, Secured Capital Real Estate Partners VI, in December. The limited partners in the vehicle included the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which committed $375 million during the fourth quarter. SCREP VI is focused on distressed debt and off-market commercial real estate opportunities in Asia, primarily in Japan, with additional opportunities in South Korea and China.

Other North American PAG investors include the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, which most recently backed the firm’s 2015 core-plus fund, PAG Real Estate Fund, and its 2012 opportunistic offering, Secured Capital Real Estate Partners V. The University of Texas Investment Management Company also committed to the latter vehicle, according to PERE data.

Founded in 2002, PAG currently has more than 380 employees located across Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney and Seoul.