| Kathryn Swintek |
BNP Paribas is making a move to increase its presence in the U.S. leveraged loan market and has hired a leveraged finance vet from Credit Suisse First Boston to help in the effort. Kathryn Swintek, head of BNP Paribas' U.S. leveraged finance group, said the bank is looking to increase its underwriting commitments for leveraged buyouts and become a league-table player. "The bank is prepared to commit multi-billion dollars to the right transaction," she said.
| Geoffrey Manna |
Geoffrey Manna, who joined the bank this month from CSFB, said the bank should be able to build upon its status in both investment grade and European loans. "When you look at the strength of BNP Paribas in Europe, there is no reason to believe that these results cannot be built upon in the U.S. market," said Manna, who was a director and team leader in CSFB's U.S. financial sponsors group. At BNP Paribas he is a managing director in the leveraged finance group acting as a financial sponsor coverage officer focusing on large-cap financial sponsors.
In the U.S., BNP Paribas has been much more focused on middle-market transactions and ranks 18th among banks arranging leveraged loans this year, according to Bloomberg data. But in the EMEA region, BNP Paribas ranks number one as of the end of May for all syndicated loans, Swintek said. In that region, the bank committed $20 billion in capital in the first quarter, compared to $18 billion from Deutsche Bank and $14 billion by Citibank, she added.
While BNP Paribas has had a presence in Europe, the bank has not led deals that have been syndicated in both Europe and the U.S., which has increased in popularity this past year. As a part of the overall strategy to increase the business with the large-cap sponsors the bank would lead cross-border deals as well, Swintek said. "We are among the few banks in the world that is able to syndicate loans and place high-yield bonds in the European and U.S. markets for any one deal," she added.
The bank is not currently looking to make any hires in the area but would not rule out hiring additional staff in the future. "As we grow our business with the sponsors, if we find that we need additional resources of any kind to achieve our objective, we will get them," Swintek said.