Gartmore and Hermes have recruited a veteran of UK private equity firm 3i and the ex-head of JP Morgan’s pension advisory group for Europe to run a new private equity fund of funds joint venture.

The venture, which was launched today as Hermes GPE with £4.1bn (€4.6bn) of assets, will focus on managing private equity funds of funds, according to an announcement issued today. Gartmore and Hermes each own half of the new venture.