Pictet Asset Management, the Swiss investment group, is building up a new private debt team which will launch for external business early next year.
It will focus on corporate lending in the European lower mid-market, strengthening the firm’s fixed income offering.
Axel Cordonnier and Jan Reichenbach join Andreas Klein, who has headed the new private debt team since he joined Pictet earlier this year.
Cordonnier, who joins after more than 10 years at Ares Management, will be head of private debt, France, based in Paris.
Reichenbach, in Frankfurt, will be head of private debt for the DACH region. He previously ran private debt for the same region plus the Netherlands at Muzinich.
Pictet has also hired Christian Eckert in Frankfurt as a senior investment manager for the DACH region. He joins from NIBC Bank’s leveraged finance team.
Before joining Pictet, Klein was a managing director at ICG, where he worked for eight years to build out its direct lending strategy.
Last month, another asset manager, Nuveen, entered talks to acquire a majority of Arcmont Asset Management, the European private debt investment manager, creating a new private debt platform, Nuveen Private Capital.
This year, private debt managers have grown rapidly, reaching a record $1.4tr of assets under management globally, according to Nuveen.