GE continues to build leveraged team

GE European Leveraged Finance, part of GE Commercial Finance, has announced the further expansion of its team with the appointment of Kim El-baz and Joanna Francis at the firm’s London headquarters.

El-baz joins GE’s leveraged team as a director and will oversee the group’s portfolio management. Prior to joining El-Baz was head of investor relations at Morgan Grenfell Private Equity. Francis previously worked as an analyst at Japanese bank Mizuho with a particular focus on credit assessment of Leveraged Finance. Francis joins the group’s origination team as an associate.

The appointments are the second to be announced by the leveraged team, headed by Graham Randell. In August, the firm recruited Miles Alexander and James Inglis to the firm’s underwriting and origination teams respectively.

Randell said that the division would seek to double its activity in the European mid-market over the course of 2003. “Last year we had to build our contacts and relationships in the European market. This year we want to increase our activity although the ongoing slowdown means we will only achieve this by taking market share.”

The firm’s most recent participation was as co-underwriter of the debt alongside Bank of Scotland for Carlyle’s £100m acquisition of engineering business Firth Rixson. “We will look to become involved in more deals of this size and nature over the coming year, although the market could still go either way at the moment.”

GE Commercial Finance, with more than $180bn in assets, provides businesses of with a range of financial services and products worldwide with a particular focus on the mid-market segment.