News & Analysis

Quartet joins Carlyle’s European debt fund

The European leveraged finance arm of Washington DC-based private equity firm Carlyle Group has recruited four professionals.

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Carlyle Europe Leveraged Finance (CELF), the European leveraged finance business of Carlyle Group, has appointed four new members to its team. London-based CELF was launched in August 2004 with the appointment of Mike Ramsay, former head of leveraged finance at Prudential M&G, as managing director.

Colin Atkins joins the team as director, having previously worked with Ramsay at Prudential M&G, where he was a director of leveraged finance. He had also held positions in corporate tax, corporate treasury and the US-based corporate private placement team since joining Prudential in 1990.

Caroline Goldsmith, who also worked with Ramsay at Prudential M&G, joins CELF as an associate director with responsibility for the structuring of levered funds and the portfolio management of leveraged finance assets. She previously worked at Alcentra, an independent debt management business, as head of structuring.   

Also joining as an associate director is Nilesh Desai, who was formerly at Citigroup. During his spell there, he was a vice president responsible for monitoring credits in the bank’s European leveraged finance portfolio, and was also involved in structuring and negotiating restructurings.

Finally, Stuart Mackenzie has been hired as a senior associate from Alcentra, where he worked in the leveraged finance market for several years.

“I am delighted to have built the team here in Europe so quickly,” said Ramsay. “The team all have great expertise in this sector, and we will now be up to full strength and will have good momentum to cover the European leveraged finance market.”

CELF is investing a €500 million leveraged finance fund, in which Bank of Scotland Corporate is a strategic investor. The fund will invest in senior and mezzanine loans and high yield.

Carlyle Group has had a leveraged finance business in the US since 1999 and manages $3 billion of assets committed to leveraged loans, high yield bonds and special situation investments in six collateralised debt obligation funds (CDOs).