Evli strengthens its private equity team

Evli's private equity team is strengthened by the joining of Richard Wanamo. Wanamo (M.Sc., LL.M., CAIA) has more than 14 years experience in alternative investments. He has previously worked at Nordea, where he invested (as lead or co-lead) more than EUR 4 billion in alternative investments globally, covering private equity and infrastructure, real estate and forest funds. Wanamo’s experience will be invaluable to Evli when developing and implementing alternative investment strategies.

Richard Wanamo will become Portfolio Manager for a soon-to-be-launched fund investing globally in infrastructure assets, Evli Infrastructure Fund I. The fund will provide access to the highest quality infrastructure funds globally, aiming to generate a steady annual yield for its investors. The fund’s main geographical targets will be Europe, North America and other OECD countries.

Richard-WanamoRichard Wanamo

Evli’s private equity funds are led with experience

The private equity team at Evli now consists of eight highly experienced members, all having excellent long-term success in implementing private equity strategies.

At the end of 2018, Evli acquired Kelonia Placering Oy, a well-established private equity investment firm founded in 2002. With this transaction, an experienced portfolio management team and Evli Private Equity I Ky Fund (approximately EUR 270 million as of 9/2019) both transferred to Evli. Investors in that fund are large Finnish institutions. Its sister fund, Evli Private Equity II Ky, was launched in spring 2019 and has already raised nearly EUR 130 million. Evli Private Equity II continues Kelonia's highly successful investment strategy from the past 17 years. The fund enables investments in the highest quality and hard-to-reach private equity funds that invest their assets in unlisted equities through so-called buyout investments.

The role of alternative funds is growing

Taking advantage of prevailing market conditions, Evli has focused on developing and selling alternative investment products. Evli's current product line-up also includes Evli Growth Partners I, a private equity fund investing in the most promising growth companies in the Nordic and European markets, and three property funds: Evli Rental Yield investing in commercial real estate; Evli Healthcare I investing in health care properties; and EAI Residential investing in residential properties. Evli is a pioneer in fund real estate investing in Finland, as it was the first to start fund real estate investing back in 2005.

Alternative investment products can be used to increase the return potential of investment portfolios by increasing diversification beyond traditional fixed income and equity investments. Clients also gain the opportunity to participate in difficult-to-access investments via the guidance of investment professionals. Alternative investment products are growing in popularity, not only among institutional investors, but also among retail investors.

Evli's Alternative Fund portfolio management consists of a team of 17 investment professionals with a total AUM of EUR 855 million.


For more information, please contact:

Tero Tuominen, Managing Director, Evli Fund Management Company Ltd, tel. +358 50 439 2867, tero.tuominen@evli.com

Kim Pessala, Head of Institutional clients, Evli Bank Plc, tel. +358 9 4766 9141, kim.pessala@evli.com