About Capricorn Private Investments
THE FIRM & TEAM
$1.1B
AUM
(Assets Under Management)
as at Jan 2023
$20M
Typical minimum investable assets for families
2017
Year founded
$100M
Typical balance sheet of institutional clients
60/40
Institutional/family AUM mix
Who we work with
Our cornerstone investor is the Capricorn Group – a significant international family office with a successful track record built up across 30 years of investing in both liquid and illiquid assets, mainly in the UK and South Africa.
The other families we work with are typically centred around first-generation entrepreneurs who have sold businesses, often in the Technology and Financial Services sectors.
With investable assets in excess of $20m, they prefer to work with an independent provider rather than setting up their own family office.
The Team
Marko Vuckovic
Marko is Managing Director with overall operational responsibility for the business. He was formerly a Partner and COO of Azure Wealth, and COO of both Vestra Wealth and Investec’s European Wealth Management business. Marko has an MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and 8 years of consulting and project management experience at Deloitte Consulting in Southern Africa and London.
Will Thomas
Will is Managing Director and a founding partner of the business. He is a member of the investment committee and oversees the portfolios of many of our most important family office clients. He previously worked for Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan in London where he advised private and institutional clients on investment strategy. He graduated from Oxford University and has an MBA from INSEAD.
Manoj Soni
Manoj is Chief Investment Officer and has responsibility for the investment platform and portfolio performance. He was formerly a Managing Director at Partners Capital where he was the global asset class head for Absolute Return and Credit. Manoj was also co-portfolio manager for the firm’s flagship pooled vehicle and managed a number of bespoke high net worth and endowment portfolios. He is a CFA charterholder and holds a 1st class degree from University College, London.
Mandeep Bahra
Mandeep joined Capricorn Private Investments in 2019 as a Principal working across the Investment and Operational platform. He previously spent 8 years as a Principal at Partners Capital in London. He graduated from Cass Business School, City University.
Tobi Clarke
Tobi joined Capricorn Private Investments in 2020 and is a Senior Associate focusing on investment due diligence across asset classes and portfolio management. He is a graduate of Oxford University where he studied Economics and Management and played for the Blues rugby team. He has passed levels 1 and 2 of the CFA program.
James Marsh
James joined Capricorn Private Investments in 2022. He is an Associate working across the Finance, Operational, and Client Management functions. Prior to this, he graduated from the University of Edinburgh.
Andrew White
Andrew has extensive experience in the family office space in the UK and Asia. Prior to Capricorn, he was a founding partner of Blauwpark Partners, a Singapore-based family office primarily focused on investing in private equity. Andrew spent 12 years with Sandaire, the multi-family office, in both London and Singapore, where he was a member of the investment committee and responsible for managing multi-asset portfolios for families, charitable foundations and educational endowments. He graduated from Durham University and is a CFA charterholder.
Pippa Bonsall
Pippa joined Capricorn Private Investments as a Principal focused on providing clients with customised advice and bespoke investment portfolios, and contributing to CPI's strategy and growth. She was previously at Credit Suisse and HSBC in London where she advised family offices and private clients on their investment strategy, liquidity and leverage needs, and capital market transactions. Pippa graduated from Durham University and has an MBA from Cambridge University.
Geoff Snelgar
Geoff is a co-founder of Capricorn and the Yellowwoods Group with the Enthoven family. He also founded Capricorn Capital Partners in South Africa in 2003, the UK in 2008 and Hong Kong in 2015. Geoff is a qualified Chartered Accountant with a Tax Law degree. He was a senior partner in Deloitte South Africa responsible for the Consulting and other non-auditing specialized services until 1993 before starting Capricorn in 1994.
Patrick Snelgar
Patrick is a co-founder of Capricorn Capital Partners in the UK and is jointly responsible for running the Private Equity advisory activities of the firm. He is a Chartered Accountant qualifying at Deloitte in South Africa. Prior to joining Capricorn, Patrick was an Analyst in the Investment Banking Division of Citibank London.
Robert Gottlieb
Robert is responsible for the overall strategy and management of the Capricorn Group’s activities in London, and specifically its Private Equity activities. He was formerly CEO of the European Wealth Management business at Investec. Robert has an accounting qualification and a law degree from the University of Cape Town.
Andrew Farrant
Andrew is Head of Corporate Services for Capricorn Capital Partners, which provides corporate services for the Capricorn group of companies and third party clients. Previously he worked at Yellowwoods, Hollard Insurance and Deloitte Consulting in South Africa. Prior to this Andrew was an equity analyst at Sanlam Investments, and UBS, based in Hong Kong. Andrew holds degrees from Oxford University and University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.
Operational setup
Capricorn Private Investments is set up as an External Asset Manager (“EAM”) and as such we do not hold (custody) any client assets – we only focus on providing independent investment advice. All investment accounts are held in the client’s own name and brokerage and custody services are subject to separate agreements with a third-party provider.
We believe this setup has a number of advantages over the standard (traditional bank) offering where all services are bundled together:
Get in touch
If you’d like more information or to discuss working with us, please do get in touch.