Churchill Financial, the middle-market finance company led by Ken Kencel, ceo, is set to acquire Centre Pacific, a collateralized debt obligation manager that has $3.5 billion in assets under management. When the acquisition is complete, Centre Pacific will be renamed Churchill Pacific Asset Management. One market player said Centre Pacific had been on the block for a while.
The management team at Centre Pacific will stay in place and join Churchill Pacific, which will be based in Los Angeles. It will be led by Heather Creeden.
Churchill recently hired Randy Schwimmer from BNP Paribas as a senior managing director and head of its capital markets, responsible for structuring and syndicating loans. He reports to Kencel (CIN, 7/21).
Churchill was formed in February 2006 by Bear Stearns Merchant Banking and Churchill Capital and focuses on providing senior and mezzanine debt financing to smaller middle-market companies (4/28).
