Sector developments and company hires

Australian business investment principles explored

The Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) has released for public comment its draft guiding investment principles for Australian Business Securitisation Fund (ABSF) investment.  The guiding investment principles are intended to be “principles based” rather than prescriptive and will be used by the AOFM for identifying transactions that will meet the government’s primary objective of increasing the availability of finance to SMEs and contributing to the development of market infrastructure that facilitates securitisation of SME loans.

The AOFM invited comments to be made by market participants on the ABSF draft investment principles but not in relation to the broader investment process which will be finalised by the AOFM at a later stage. On 6 June, the ASF submitted a short response on the draft guiding investment principles. The ASF will be facilitating two public information sessions to be presented by the AOFM in Sydney and Melbourne on 23 and 25 July, respectively.  At those sessions, market participants will have an opportunity to receive an update and ask questions about the ABSF.  

Special situations hire confirmed

Pimco has hired Jamie Weinstein as md, pm and head of corporate special situations. Weinstein will be based in Newport Beach and will report to Dan Ivascyn, Pimco’s group cio and will start 1 September. Weinstein will help strengthen the firm’s capabilities across a broad range of opportunistic and alternative strategies, with a focus on special situations in the corporate credit space. He was most recently at KKR as a pm for the firm’s credit and special situations portfolios.