Varde Partners has promoted three individuals, naming a third deputy chief investment officer and two new partners, all veterans of the Minneapolis-based firm for more than a decade.
The credit manager has named Brad Bauer to deputy CIO and elevated Elena Lieskovska and Haseeb Malik to partner, according to a statement from Varde.
Bauer is the global head of private debt, transportation and energy. Currently based in Minneapolis, he is poised to relocate to London. The move will give the firm a CIO in each region, with one of its co-CIOs, Illfryn Carstairs, in Singapore and its other co-CIO, Jeremy Hedberg, in Minneapolis, the statement said.
Lieskovska is head of European Financial Services, where she oversees private equity investments in specialty finance companies and other such businesses, while Malik helped build out the corporate restructuring practice in the Asia-Pacific region and established the firm’s presence in India.
Lieskovska is based in London, while Malik works in the Singapore office. The firmer has been with the firm since 2008, the latter since 2006.
Varde closed its first Asian credit fund in December with $400 million in equity commitments, which will be focused on Australia, Indonesia, India and Japan. The vehicle will invest in corporate credit, real estate debt as well as stressed and distressed loans. In August, the firm announced a strategic partnership with Aditya Birla Capital to invest in distressed and special situations scenarios.
The firm wrapped up its latest flagship vehicle, Varde Fund XII, on $ 1.74 billion in March 2017, which had posted a 10.8 percent net internal rate of return as of 30 June, according to documents from the Florida State Board of Administration, which committed $200 million to the fund. The firm is currently in market with Fund XIII, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
