Carlyle adds two to credit opportunities team in London

Carlyle Group has hired Taj Sidhu to lead its credit opportunities team in Europe, saying that expanding its global credit business was a priority for the firm.

Sidhu joins from Oz Management where he spent 14 years leading its private credit operation in Europe and was part of several investment committees within the asset manager. Before joining Oz in 2004 he was an investment banking associate at Merrill Lynch in its financial sponsors and leveraged finance groups.

Sidhu will be based in London and report to Alexander Popov, head of the global credit opportunities team at Carlyle.

“Building out our Global Credit business is a strategic priority for the firm, and we see an opportunity in Europe for complex and highly structured investments in support of family and entrepreneur-owned businesses,” Popov said. “Expanding our credit opportunities team in Europe is also testament to our team’s achievements in the US where we have already committed to a number of investments.”

To further bolster the European team, Philip Moore has also been hired as a managing director based in London. Before joining Carlyle, he worked at HPS Investment Partners directing its real estate investments in Europe. Before joining HPS in 2014 he was a principal and investment committee member at DRC Capital focused on European commercial real estate debt deals.

Carlyle’s credit opportunities team invests in secured loans, senior subordinated debt, mezzanine and convertible notes and has $34 billion in assets under management. It intends to make additional hires in Europe this year to further grow its operations on the continent.