Cantor Fitzgerald boosts CLO and structured credit team

Florian Bita has joined Cantor Fitzgerald as managing director to focus on the group’s CLO secondary trading market in the US, while Jason Eppleston joined as the head of structured credit origination in Europe. Lastly, Damian Horton has joined as a collateralised debt obligation structurer and deal originator.

Bita will be responsible for the secondary trading team and will help build out Cantor’s primary new issuance capabilities alongside James Keller in New York. He was previously head of CLO and structured products trading at UBS, where he was responsible for overseeing trading of structured finance products, including CLOs & CBOs. Prior to joining UBS, he served at Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, and Salomon Brothers.

Eppleston joins the firm from Investec Bank, where he worked as a senior banker and was responsible for CDO structuring. Prior to that, he was a managing director at Bear Stearns, where he was responsible for structured credit origination.

Horton will helm the firm’s CDO structuring unit in Europe, focusing on the financial analytics of deal origination. He has held senior level positions in financial modelling across multiple asset classes at Pioneer Investments, Prudential Financial and Bear Stearns.

Bita will be based in New York, and will report to Shawn Matthews, chief executive of Cantor Fitgerald’s US operations. Meanwhile, Eppleston and Horton will be based in London, and will report to Simon Gold who leads the European structured credit trading desk.

“The creation of a primary CLO desk is a natural and substantial progression of our presence in the secondary CLO space,” said Matthews, in a statement. “Our vision to build out our asset-backed trading and structured credit platform, as well as our primary issuance capabilities extends the scope of our fixed income business.”