Sector developments and company hires

Apollo has beefed up its Asia Pacific business, with the addition of Anthony Hermann as a partner and head of Asia Pacific credit, based in Sydney. Together with fellow new hires mds Vidyasagar Pulavarti and Julian Longstaff, he will be responsible for building and expanding the firm’s yield business across the APAC region.

Hermann was previously executive general manager, global markets and institutional banking at Commonwealth Bank, and before that worked at JPMorgan – including within the firm’s New York securitised products group. Pulavarti and Longstaff were also formerly at Commonwealth Bank, employed as head of credit portfolio management and head of global capital markets respectively. Prior to Commonwealth Bank, the former worked at a number of investment banks – including Citi and JPMorgan – while the latter worked at Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch.

In other news….

EMEA

Alantra has announced the opening of its first Middle East office in Dubai – expanding its presence into 21 countries with a total of 25 offices. Joining as managing partner of its new office is Saad Ashraf, who brings over 25 years of experience in both conventional and Islamic finance in the Middle East to the firm. Prior to joining Alantra, Ashraf served as principal and md of the Middle East business – StormHarbour. The new office will be based in the Dubai International Financial Centre.

Securitisation and structured finance lawyer Aurélie Le Griel has joined CMS Francis Lefebvre as an avocat, based in Paris. She previously worked at Clifford Chance, Hogan Lovells, Credit Agricole, Linklaters, Societe Generale and BNP Paribas.

Moody’s has agreed to acquire a majority stake in one of Africa’s leading credit rating agencies - Global Credit Rating Company (GCR). The firm hopes 51% stake in GCR will expand its presence across Africa, and further demonstrate its continued commitments to economic growth in South Africa, as both Moody’s and GCR hope to play a positive societal role in the region. GCR will continue working on issuing its ratings and methodologies and will keep its own separate management team. The transaction, which is expected to close in Q2 2022, will have no material impact on Moody’s financial results for 2022.

North America

Bridge Investment Group has closed on the earlier disclosed transaction to acquire certain assets from Gorelick Brothers Capital. The deal will see the pair working as a joint team in the rapidly expanding single-family rental market, with Bridge acquiring a total of 60% of GBC’s business – worth approximately US$50m. The transaction includes the acquisition of the majority of GBC’s asset and property management business, and a portfolio of single-family rental homes owned by GBC-managed vehicles. As well, the firms have completed a US$660m recapitalisation of the single-family rental portfolio with more than 2,700 homes across 14 markets in the US through Bridge-sponsored investment fund vehicles.