Jefferies Hires Kerry as Co-Head of EMEA Leveraged Finance

(Bloomberg) — Jefferies Financial Group Inc. hired Tim Kerry from Barclays Plc as the bank builds up its ranks to prepare for a wave of M&A-related financings.
Kerry will join Jefferies as co-head of EMEA leveraged finance and run the division with Bala Ramesh, who is also head of EMEA debt capital markets within fixed income, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Spokespeople for Jefferies and Barclays declined to comment.
Jefferies also recently hired Arnaud Collas from Citigroup Inc. to take up a role as managing director in EMEA leveraged finance, the people said. A spokesperson for Citigroup declined to comment, while Kerry didn’t respond to requests for comment and Collas couldn’t be reached for comment.
Acquisition-related financings have started to tick up after years of muted activity, and banks are getting ready to arrange more deals that offer some of the most lucrative fees in investment banking.
New York-based Jefferies has embarked on an aggressive expansion of senior dealmakers to chase business in Europe. As part of that effort, former Citigroup banker Simon Francis joined last year to lead its EMEA debt financing business in a newly created role.
The buyout of Dutch generic drugmaker Synthon International Holding BV is one example where Jefferies is among lenders lining up about €900 million ($938 million) of loans. Jefferies is also an adviser to private equity firm EQT AB on the possible sale of Swedish consumer-health business Karo Healthcare. Bankers are readying debt packages for about €1 billion to potential bidders.
At Barclays, Kerry ran EMEA leveraged finance origination. Prior to Barclays, he spent a decade at HSBC Holdings Plc in leveraged finance roles.
Barclays has suffered a string of departures including that of Kartik Subramanian-Nair, who left in November for Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s capital markets unit in London. The bank’s co-head of global leveraged finance syndicate, Stephen Smith, left for John Aylward’s credit hedge fund Sona in 2023.
Barclays have recently hired Bjorn Andersen, a leveraged loan and high-yield bond banker, from Nordea, to work alongside Anastasia Chernetskaya, who joined as a director from Deutsche Bank AG.
(Adds details of newly-created role in 5th paragraph)
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