Sector developments and company hires

Euro CLO footprint established

Cross Ocean Partners has completed Bosphorus CLO VII, the seventh European CLO from the Bosphorus team and the first under Cross Ocean's management. Cross Ocean acquired the Bosphorus European CLO platform, its three CLOs and five-person team from Commerzbank last December (SCI 2 December 2021).

The transaction established Cross Ocean's footprint in the European CLO market. Concurrent to the acquisition of the platform, Cross Ocean closed on a €130m risk retention fund - alongside a strategic investor - to help fund the issuance of future Cross Ocean CLOs and enable the business to grow successfully.

Since the team – which is led by London-based senior portfolio manager and head of European CLOs Guy Beeston - joined Cross Ocean, it has hired two new members and been fully integrated into the wider Cross Ocean business.

In other news…

EMEA

Apollo Global Management has appointed Sebastian Zilles as a partner in its European principal finance team, based in London. He is tasked with identifying opportunities within real estate equity, non-performing loans and non-corporate structured credit. Zilles was previously head of commercial real estate, EMEA at PIMCO and, prior to that, worked at Corestate Capital and Morgan Stanley.

Anatoly Sorin has joined GLAS as head of its UK operation, based in the firm’s London headquarters and reporting to head of EMEA Joanne Brooks. Sorin brings more than 15 years of experience in the loan agency and corporate trustee industry, including longstanding expertise in complex securitisations, such as CDOs and CLOs.

Sorin joins GLAS from US Bank, where he most recently served as svp and head of relationship management within its global corporate trust services business. In this newly created position, he will be responsible for GLAS’s loan agency and trustee businesses in London, directly managing the transaction management group, middle office, DCM and client services teams.