Sector developments and company hires

Acquisitions
A consortium led by funds managed by Stone Point Capital and Further Global has agreed to acquire Duff & Phelps for US$4.2bn. The equity sellers include the Permira funds, which will continue to hold a significant stake in the company as part of the consortium. As part of the transaction, the Duff & Phelps management team will maintain a meaningful equity stake in the firm and continue to lead the company. The transaction is expected to close in 2Q20, subject to customary closing conditions. Separately, Duff & Phelps has acquired Lucid Issuer Services, Lucid Agency and Trustee Services and Fluyd.

North America
BMS Group has appointed Jani Kohonen as svp and Atlanta branch manager, reporting to Pete Chandler, president and ceo of BMS Re US. Kohonen has over 15 years’ experience in the insurance and risk market, and was previously vp at StarStone Insurance in Atlanta, overseeing its ILS initiatives and underwriting strategy in the US E&S property space. He also worked at Aspen Insurance Group in New York between 2007 and 2017 - where he held a number of senior roles, with a particular focus on catastrophe risk management - and began his career at Arch Insurance Group in 2005.

Craig Phillips has joined dv01 as a senior advisor to assist the firm’s senior leadership team with business strategy, as well as growth and business development initiatives. At the US Treasury, Phillips previously led domestic finance and drove housing reform policy, serving as counselor to Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Before that, he spent close to a decade as md at BlackRock - where he founded and led the financial markets advisory group - and held senior leadership positions as head of the securitised product group at Morgan Stanley and as co-head of US ABS and MBS at Credit Suisse First Boston. He was recently appointed to the board of directors of Ripple.

Hilltop Securities has recruited Mahesh Swaminathan to its fixed income capital markets division in New York. Swaminathan will be part of the securitised products sales and trading desk, where he will oversee both MBS and ABS strategy and marketing, focusing on the firm’s agency MBS sales and trading platform. He joins the firm from Goldman Sachs, where - as the agency MBS strategist - he advised the MBS trading and sales desks and clients on trade ideas and market insights, as well as updated prepayment models. Prior to this, Swaminathan led MBS strategy at Credit Suisse.

Student loan sale
During its recent 4Q19 earnings call, Sallie Mae announced plans to sell US$3bn of student loan assets to fund US$600m authorised share buyback. The company will sell parts of its existing portfolio, proportionate to the overall exposure of the total loan book. The sale is anticipated for early this year.