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Houlihan Lokey Builds Secondary Advisory With Senior Hire

Sameer Shamsi Joins as a Managing Director and Head of Secondaries

New York—May 26, 2021—Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI), the global investment bank, announced today that Sameer Shamsi has joined the firm as a Managing Director and Head of Secondaries in the Private Funds Group (PFG). He is based in New York. 

Mr. Shamsi joins from Credit Suisse, where he led secondary advisory activities in the Americas as a member of the Private Funds Group’s Capital Solutions team. Prior to Credit Suisse, he was part of the founding team and a Managing Director in Evercore’s Private Capital Advisory group. Over the course of his career, Mr. Shamsi has assisted alternative asset managers and their investors on a broad range of innovative transactions, including single-asset and multi-asset GP-led continuation funds, LP tenders, sales of direct investment portfolios, bespoke capital raises, and a variety of accelerated liquidity solutions, among others. 

“The tremendous growth of the secondary market in nearly every respect—geography, transaction type, complexity, and participants—demands the type of global experience and execution expertise that Sameer brings to the PFG platform,” said Shea Goggin, Global Co-Head of the Private Funds Group. “We are excited to join forces with a former colleague to lead our significant secondaries build-out and are confident the practice will grow and continue to be successful under his guidance and leadership.”

“We’re humbled to partner with a person of Sameer’s caliber to build our secondaries practice alongside our primary fundraising business and our General Partner Advisory practice, run by Joseph Lombardo, which provides strategic advice to our GP clients regarding liquidity options, including GP-level preferred equity raises and full GP stake sales,” added Andy Lund, Global Co-Head of the Private Funds Group.

“Houlihan Lokey’s corporate culture and comprehensive suite of products and services, particularly in the increasingly intersecting universes of financial sponsors and alternative capital, is second to none, and they reflect the firm’s deep commitment to providing independent, best-in-class service to its clients around the world. I’m excited to partner with my colleagues at Houlihan Lokey and continue that tradition of superior client service as the secondaries market continues to evolve and grow,” said Mr. Shamsi.

Mr. Shamsi holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Columbia University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

With a focused team of 28 professionals around the world, Houlihan Lokey’s Private Funds Group combines the capabilities and experience of a leading institutional agent, the focus and reputation of a leading boutique, and the strategic perspective of a general partner to provide its clients with a comprehensive suite of bespoke solutions. The team has raised $8.2 billion in private placements from more than 350 limited partners since 2015. In addition to private capital raising, the Private Funds Group’s practice areas also include secondary advisory and general partner advisory. In 2020, Houlihan Lokey was ranked as the Most Active Investment Bank to Private Equity globally, and the firm has been ranked as the top U.S. private equity M&A advisor for each of the past five years, according to PitchBook.


Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) is a global investment bank with expertise in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, financial restructuring, and financial and valuation advisory. Houlihan Lokey serves corporations, institutions, and governments worldwide with offices in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region. Independent advice and intellectual rigor are hallmarks of the firm’s commitment to client success across its advisory services. The firm is the No. 1 investment bank for all global M&A transactions, the No. 1 M&A advisor for the past nine consecutive years in the U.S., the No. 1 global restructuring advisor for the past ten consecutive years, and the No. 1 global M&A fairness opinion advisor over the past 25 years, all based on number of transactions and according to data provided by LSEG (formerly Refinitiv).

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