BofA's EMEA head of leveraged finance origination quit for Citi
Bank of America isn't commenting, but we understand there's been a major leveraged finance exit from its leveraged finance team in London.
Multiple sources say that Uday Malhotra has resigned from BofA. Malhotra was BofA's EMEA head of leveraged finance origination, and he wasn't there all that long. - He joined in October 2021 after 12 years in a similar role at Goldman Sachs.
Malhotra didn't respond to a request to comment. He's understood to be joining Citi as co-head of EMEA loans and leveraged finance, working alongside Paul Gibbs, who runs leveraged loans for EMEA at Citi. Speaking earlier this month, Citi CEO Jane Fraser said the bank is "continuing to strategically invest in talent and in the platform."
Uday's exit comes amidst problems in the leveraged finance market as the value of loans originated last year, many of which have yet to be sold, has plummeted. The Financial Times reports today that debt relating to the £10bn takeover of Morrisons has declined in value by £400m once it's marked to market. If and when job cuts happen, leveraged finance is expected to be at the front of the queue.
Despite the issues in the leveraged finance market, banks are hiring. Mizuho is also understood to have recruited Hernan Quipildor from Natixis as head of CLOs in London (it's not commenting either). Meanwhile, Bank of America hired Fabian Ansorg from M&G Investments as an MD earlier this month. Citi recently hired Jenner Kizer from Deutsche Bank as a director in leveraged finance capital markets. Jefferies hired Efe Kapanci from HSBC. SocGen hired Thomas Coulon as a VP, based in Paris. And BNP Paribas hired Sami Al-Bakri as a director from HSBC. Barclays hired Samir Dada from Bank of America to cover top tier financial sponsors.
The implication is that senior leveraged finance professionals are locking in packages by moving jobs ahead of likely problems in the market later this year. "There's a lot of change coming in leveraged finance," says one headhunter. "Some big losses on bridge loans are about to kick-in."
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