MDs, Partners from BlackRock, Goldman flock to private credit firm
If you’re working in a bank and angling for an exit, there are worse places to go than a private credit firm.
Plenty of bankers have gone already – and not just bankers. Our recent analysis of the backgrounds of people working in private credit found that while 26% came from investment banks' analyst programs and leveraged finance, people were also moving into the area from public credit and private equity.
Private credit firms are hiring. Ares added 350 people last year and firms continue to recruit. Strategic Value Partners (SVP), a Connecticut based fund with over $18bn in assets under management has already added at least 3 people, just a month into the year.
They include Timo Koch and Sofya Alterman. Koch joins in London as an MD from Avenue Capital Group, a private equity firm. Alterman joins in New York as head product specialist. She previously spent six years at BlackRock.
SVP added people at the tail end of last year, too. Goldman Sachs partner Michael Ungari left Goldman for SVP in New York back in October (although he's yet to join the firm). Marc Pereira-Mendoza joined in London after more than two decades at Credit Suisse, where he was latterly an MD.
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SVP is a private company and doesn’t post US accounts. Its London-based subsidiary does, however. The most recent numbers, for 2022, show that the fund paid £439k ($557k) per head on average to its 29 employees, and £405k ($514k) in 2021. That was despite profit available for distribution falling by 25%, from £15m ($19m) to £11m ($14m).
2023 might end up even better than 2022 for SVP – or any other private credit fund. Last year, co-head of North America credit investments for PSP Investments, Charlotte
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