Lloyds promotes six in leveraged finance group

Lloyds Bank Acquisition Finance has promoted six individuals, including Mark Craig to the role of managing director.
 
Craig, who is based in London and joined the acquisition finance team in 2006 as a senior director, will be responsible for origination of larger leveraged loan transactions throughout Europe. Prior to 2006, he worked for four years in a number of roles within Lloyds Banking Group. He previously worked in mergers and acquisitions at Société Générale.
 
Former directors Joëlle Antmann and Riëlla Hollander have been promoted to senior directors in Paris and Amsterdam, respectively. Antmann is head of origination for leveraged finance in France and joined in 2003 after working in leveraged finance in London for UBS, WestLB and Bear Stearns. Hollander, who is responsible for deal origination and structuring in the Benelux and Nordic regions, joined as an associate director in 2000 and was promoted to director in 2004.
 
Craig, Antmann and Hollander all report to Head of Acquisition Finance, Ian Brown, who was promoted to the role last November.
 
“Despite continuing uncertainty surrounding larger private equity transactions in Europe given syndication and pricing challenges, our…relationship-based approach and focus on credit quality continues to enable us to back sponsors and their portfolio companies with well-structured leveraged debt to drive value creation,” Brown said in a statement.
 
Since joining Lloyds in 2006, Brown and the acquisition finance team have helped to structure financings for deals including BC Partners’ buyout of Phones4U and CVC Capital Partners’ acquisition of Raet.

Lloyds Bank was unavailable for comment at press time.

Lloyds associate directors Ivo Kroschel, based in Frankfurt, and Emeric Hudault and Matthew Ward, both located in London, have also been promoted from associate directors to directors, while former associate director in the London credit division Rob Klijn has moved to the bank’s Acquisition Finance team in Amsterdam.
 
During the first quarter of 2012, Lloyds Bank’s Acquisition Finance team underwrote more than $800 million of leveraged finance in four deals, securing an 11 percent market share, according to the firm.