Natixis’s co-head of structured credit and credit trading has left the bank to join New York-based private equity shop Blue Owl Capital, as the firm seeks to step up its efforts in the collateralized loan obligation market.
Credit markets executive Alex Zilberman plans to join Blue Owl’s structured credit team in August, after almost seven years at Natixis, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
In his new position, Zilberman will continue to focus on the $1 trillion CLO market, which repackages leveraged loans according to varying levels of risk and returns before selling them to investors.
Zilberman will be the third market veteran to join Blue Owl this summer. Mizuho Securities’ head CLO structurer, Hao Jiang, joined last week after about eight years at the Japanese bank, while Diana Bergman was recruited last month from Barclays, where she was a senior CLO structurer.
The hiring spree follows Blue Owl’s April acquisition of CLO manager Wellfleet Credit Partners from affiliates of private equity firm Littlejohn & Co. Wellfleet oversees CLO portfolios and invests in third-party CLO equity and junior mezzanine tranches on behalf of other accounts. Blue Owl plans to incorporate the firm’s $6.5 billion in assets under management into its own $94.5 billion portfolio.
The three new recruits will report to Jerry DeVito, Blue Owl’s head of structured products and portfolio finance. DeVito and Zilberman are former colleagues who previously worked together at Credit Suisse in the leveraged finance and structured products group, managing collateralized fund products. Jiang has also worked at the Swiss bank.
Meanwhile, Natixis has appointed both Brad Roberts and David Williams as co-heads of its Credit Americas group and picked Mark Dodson to head its US structured credit syndicate, according to a July 7 statement. Chris Gilbert, head of U.S. CLO banking, will still manage the CLO team, overseeing deal execution and client relationships.
A spokesperson for Natixis confirmed Zilberman’s departure. Blue Owl declined to comment.
