03 October 2011

Northill Capital announces the launch of Goldbridge Capital Partners

A new European credit asset management company with up to $100mln equity and seed capital

Northill Capital is pleased to announce the launch of Goldbridge Capital Partners* [Goldbridge], a newly established European credit asset management company.

The firm has been established by a team of experienced investors led by Gina Germano and Dipankar Shewaram with the financial backing of Northill Capital [Northill], an independent privately held asset management business. With the backing of Northill, Goldbridge will be able to deploy up to $100mln of equity and seed capital from day one.

The Goldbridge team has a strong track record and huge depth of experience of the European distressed, high yield and global credit markets. The team has worked at some of the best known names in the sector, and the launch marks the reformation of one of Europe's most experienced sub-investment grade/distressed teams. The team will include Thomas Naess, Samantha Wessels, Nick Thomson and David Levenson.

The team at Goldbridge believes that the current credit market crisis combined with the need for European banks to de-lever will lead to a significant number of new high yield and distressed investing possibilities as businesses restructure. Goldbridge will seek to profit from the opportunity presented by the refinancing glut. The under-representation of institutional investors in the European sub-investment grade credit market compared to the US, combined with the ongoing regulatory and economic shifts is creating an unprecedented opportunity.

Goldbridge highlights:

• Pure play credit manager with no investment banking, private equity or proprietary investment activity - free from conflicts.
• Team of experienced fund managers with distinguished collective track records.
• Private partnership with significant financial backing, robust infrastructure and established executive management.
• Long-only and long short fund launches to focus in sub-investment grade and investment grade.
• Timing reflects growing demand for experienced credit specialists that combine local market knowledge and a strong bottom-up research process.
• A multilingual European-based specialist that crucially understands the different characteristics of the local markets in terms of language, bankruptcy laws and corporate governance (which are very different to the US).
• Experienced investment team led by Gina Germano supported by Dipankar Shewaram:
• Gina is one of the leading names in European high yield and distressed investing with almost 20 years of relevant investment experience at BlueBay Asset Management, Lazard and Morgan Stanley.
• Dipankar has over 14 years experience at BlueBay Asset Management and Western Asset Management where he managed or advised over $22bln.
• 15-strong management and operational team established with over 100 years of combined experience in dedicated global credit, high yield and distressed investing.
• Additional members of the multinational team include Samantha Wessels, David Levenson, Thomas Naess and Nick Thomson who bring European restructuring experience from BlueBay Asset Management, Houlihan Lokey, Jefferies, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Rothschild.
• Goldbridge has also put an experienced institutional distribution team which will be led by Fahim Imam-Sadeque and Damian Nixon.
• Goldbridge has formed a robust corporate governance framework comprising:
• The Board of Directors of Goldbridge will be chaired by its non-Executive Director, Frank Dangeard, former Chairman & CEO of Thomson and Deputy CEO of France Telecom.
• Northill partners, Jon Little and Jeremy Bassil will sit on the Goldbridge Board of Directors. Jon was former Vice Chairman, BNY Mellon Asset Management. Jeremy was at The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation as Associate General Counsel prior to joining Northill.
• Gina Germano, Head of the Executive Committee will be supported by Scott Sanderson, former CFO of West LB Mellon AM, as Chief Financial Officer responsible globally for finance, audit and management accounting; and Amrit Midha, former Head of Legal and Compliance at Western Asset Management Co Ltd. as Chief Compliance Officer responsible for legal, compliance and risk functions globally. All three form the firm's Executive Committee.
• Goldbridge's ownership is split equally between its founding partners and Northill.
• Northill provides deep industry experience and expertise and conflict-free private capital which supports long-term alignment between the investment team and its clients.

Gina Germano, Founding Partner, Goldbridge Capital Partners, said: "We established Goldbridge with a view that the ongoing development of Europe's credit markets will produce a protracted period of inefficiency. The timing of our launch corresponds with the growing requirement for alternative sources of capital. We believe that the likelihood of a second economic downturn, the fast approaching wall of refinancing against an environment of undercapitalised banks and the enormous capacity for European institutional ownership of sub-investment grade debt offer a rare opportunity for investors. We have assembled the key pillars - teams, capital, specialist products and infrastructure to exploit this opportunity in an impactful way."

Jon Little, Partner, Northill Capital, said:
"This is our largest investment to date as part of our strategy to build a diversified portfolio of asset management businesses to create long-term value.

"Goldbridge has a world class team in place, is well capitalised, free from conflicts and has the capacity to manage billions of dollars of assets from the outset. We are very excited about being part of this emerging story."

*Goldbridge Capital Partners is awaiting FSA authorisation.