Things are afoot at West Coast-based institutional broker-dealer JonesTrading.
As part of its expansion into new markets and services, the firm has established a Private Markets Group in response to market demand. The Group will build on JonesTrading’s successes in relationship-based transactions, for its 1,500 institutional clients, now extending to Private Equity, Venture Capital, and other private entities.
JonesTrading has named Brian Cilento as Head of the new Private Markets Group to resource the new initiative. Cilento joined JonesTrading in 2019 as Product Sales Specialist. He has over two decades’ experience in buyside trading. Previously, he served as Head of Trading at Falcon Edge Capital, responsible for global execution for all products including equity, forex, credit, derivatives, and rates. Previously he held senior trading positions at Iridian Asset Management, Accipiter Capital, George Weiss, Pequot Capital, and Dawson Samberg.
“The addition of Private Market transaction capabilities reflects our commitment to providing liquidity expertise for our institutional clients across multiple asset classes,” Alan Hill, CEO of JonesTrading, said. “Brian Cilento comes to the role with a deep understanding of JonesTrading’s relationship model – a model that is critical for success in this space.”
Private Markets are emerging as critical to financial services, though overall professional capabilities in portfolio company transactions have been limited. JonesTrading will meet this underserved need.
“The amount of capital in the Private Markets and the exponential growth potential provides opportunities for our clients to participate as they seek to diversify their assets and secure returns,” said Cilento. “We are certain that this market is becoming a viable parallel for investors to the public markets – certainly not to replace them, but to offer an alternative.”
With companies staying private longer and with some opting solely for a private financing route, there is increasing demand in the secondary market for such private securities transactions. Currently, there is over $1.8 trillion of aggregate market cap in venture-backed companies with a market cap of $500 million or more. The addressable market is expected to have a total market cap of more than $2.0 trillion when accounting for companies worth $250mm to $500mm.
