Deals

Clunie leaves Macquarie

Spence Clunie, a senior managing director responsible for Macquarie Capital’s UK and European debt business, has left the firm after five years to set up his own business in the infrastructure space. However, he will still act as a consultant to Macquarie until the first half of 2011.

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Spence Clunie, the head of Macquarie Capital’s UK and European debt operations, has left the firm to start his own business in the infrastructure space.

However, Clunie told Infrastructure Investor he is still acting as a consultant at Macquarie on several projects and will likely continue to do so until the first half of 2011. He also added he intends to launch his new infrastructure business in the next few months but did not give any further details on the new venture.

Clunie joined Macquarie Capital in April 2005 and built its UK and European debt team from scratch to the more than 15 people it has today. During those five years, the debt team raised €95 billion of capital for infrastructure and essential service companies.

Some of the transactions Clunie led at Macquarie included the financing for the £8 billion (€9.7 billion; $12.3 billion) acquisition of UK utility Thames Water and the subsequent £4 billion securitisation refinancing and £550 million junior debt refinancing; the £4.2 billion acquisition of utility Southern Water; and the £2.5 billion acquisition financing for Arqiva and National Grid Wireless.

Prior to joining Macquarie, Clunie was head of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein’s acquisition finance business.