Sector developments and company hires

Chenavari bolsters continental footprint

The Chenavari Group has established a French subsidiary – Chenavari Asset Management – approved and regulated by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF). The move is designed to help develop Chenavari’s standing in France, as well as across continental Europe. The firm has recorded strong growth in this region in recent years across its three investment platforms: tradable credit, private debt and leveraged loans and CLOs.

The Paris office is headed by chairman Stéphane Parlebas - who has been working at Chenavari since 2010 as a senior portfolio manager covering European financials - and general manager Olivier Nolland, who joined the group in March 2022. Currently, there is a team of eight professionals based in the Paris office.

Beyond promoting Chenavari to institutional clients, the French asset management company aims to develop new investment strategies locally. The AMF authorisation covers management of collective investment undertakings through a large number of financial debt instruments and real estate lending activity.

Currently managing over €5bn for its institutional clients, Chenavari has been active in European credit markets for 15 years and has two existing offices located in London and Luxembourg.

In other news…

APAC
International insurance broker, Howden CAP, has appointed new executive director, Christopher Evans, to expand its capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region. Evans joins the firm with more than 20 years of experience in global banking and structured finance, having most recently served as a director in distribution at NAB, maintaining responsibility for procuring credit risk insurance within the corporate and institutional division. With Evans’ arrival, Howden hopes to be able to now offer clients seamless coverage across the APAC and Gulf Cooperation (GCC) regions – hoping to leverage Evans’ experience to help clients better harness the powers of insurance and optimise their exposure management, regulatory capital, and achieve strategic aims.

EMEA

Jacob Walton has joined Sona Asset Management as CLO manager, leading the firm’s efforts to establish a European CLO management platform. He was previously a director in Rothschild & Co’s credit management team, which he joined in August 2011. Before that, Walton worked at Elgin Capital, ABN AMRO/LaSalle and RBS.

North America

Antares Capital has recruited Seth Katzenstein as md, head of broadly syndicated loans, based in New York. He was previously md, head of US loans and high yield at ICG, leading US CLO and liquid credit fund portfolio management at the firm. Before that, Katzenstein worked at Black Diamond Capital Management, GSC Group and Salomon Smith Barney.

Samuel Hu has returned to Chapman and Cutler as senior counsel, based in New York, having been an associate in the firm’s securitisation and banking team between April 2012 and June 2014. He began his career at Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and has also worked at VeriClock, Button Finance, PeerIQ, OnDeck, Fundation Group and Morgan Stanley.