Sector developments and company hires

Additional CLOs for Ares
An Ares Management Corporation subsidiary is set to acquire a managing interest in a restructured Crestline Denali Capital that will result in the addition of seven CLOs totalling US$2.6bn of assets under management to the Ares portfolio. Crestline Denali will retain its equity interest in its CLOs. Ares believes that the all-cash transaction will strengthen its leading global CLO franchise and increase its CLO assets under management by US$2.6bn without the assumption of any debt or headcount. The transaction is expected to close in 1Q20 and is subject to customary closing conditions.

North America
Bernard Van der Stichele has joined Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOP) as ILS portfolio manager, based in Toronto, Canada. He previously founded Whitebox Analytics and before that had senior roles at AlphaCat Managers, Guy Carpenter and AQR Capital Management. He began his career as assistant portfolio manager at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, where he established its first ILS investment portfolio.

SCOR case to proceed
In a judgment delivered on 30 January, the London High Court of Justice dismissed Barclays’ application to stay proceedings brought by SCOR, which can now progress. SCOR last year initiated criminal and civil proceedings in France against Thierry Derez and Covéa, as well as civil proceedings in the UK against Barclays, to remedy the alleged misconduct resulting from the unlawful misappropriation and use of SCOR's confidential documents and information, which Derez had access to as a director of SCOR. The SCOR group considers that this misconduct was committed with the aim of wrongfully favouring the preparation and submission by Covéa of its unsolicited takeover proposal for SCOR. In the UK proceedings initiated by SCOR against Barclays for breach of confidence and trade secrets, SCOR claims that Barclays obtained from Covéa information that was highly confidential and sensitive to SCOR and demands that Barclays stop using the documents and hand them over. Barclays had asked the Court for a stay until the judgment of the Paris Criminal Court in the criminal proceedings initiated by SCOR against Derez and Covéa. The judgment of the London High Court points out that there would have been "substantial prejudice to SCOR" if these proceedings had been stayed, as SCOR would have been "deprived by a stay of disclosure and potentially witness evidence”, which will enable them to determine the extent of any breach of confidence by Barclays and Derez. The criminal trial in connection with Covéa's unsolicited takeover proposal for SCOR – respectively for breach of trust and concealment of breach of trust – is scheduled to take place on 5 and 6 May before the Paris Criminal Court.