CVC recruits Goldman's leveraged finance head

Stephen Hickey, the former global head of leveraged finance at Goldman Sachs, has joined CVC Capital Partners as a partner and chief risk officer of its newly created credit business CVC Credit Partners.

He will be based in New York and will also chair CVC’s new global portfolio committee, the firm said in a statement.

Hickey spent 20 years at Goldman in various senior roles including global head of leverage finance,  co-head of global loans, member of the firmwide risk and firmwide capital committees and head of loan sales and secondary trading. He had been a partner at Goldman Sachs since 2004.

“His senior sourcing, risk management and investing expertise in the US and Europe across products and cycles will be integral to the development of our business as we adapt to these changing markets for corporate credit,” CVC managing partner Chris Stadler said in the statement.

CVC confirmed that its January deal with advisory Resource America to merge CVC Cordatus Group and Apidos Capital Management has now completed, forming CVC Credit Partners.

The new business, which invests in sub-investment grade debt in the US and Europe, comprises $7.7 billion of credit assets across 23 vehicles, CVC said.

CVC joins other firms that have sought to bolster their debt capabilities in anticipation of a wave of re-financing in Europe and elsewhere.

In February The Carlyle Group made its first ever investment in the European CLO market, picking up four management contracts worth €2.1 billion from Highland Capital Management.

The Blackstone Group’s existing debt arm, GSO Capital Partners, acquired European leveraged loan manager Harbourmaster Capital for an undisclosed sum in October, bringing the US group’s total debt-related European assets under management to about €11.5 billion.

In the same month HIG Capital, which already operates a debt management arm through its Bayside Capital subsidiary, acquired a portfolio of assets from Dallas-based collaterised loan obligations (CLOs) manager WhiteHorse Capital for an undisclosed sum.

Credit investments represent a “huge opportunity” in Europe, Blackstone president Tony James said in an earnings call earlier this year. “In corporate credit, we think this will be a huge year.”