Blackstone’s Corporate Debt Group Establishes European Presence
New York/London; September 8, 2005. Blackstone today announced that Debra Anderson will join the firm as a Managing Director to establish Blackstone’s presence as a manager of noninvestment grade assets issued by companies throughout Europe. Ms. Anderson will join Blackstone’s Corporate Debt Group which was established in 1998 and has grown to nearly $5.0 billion in commitments and assets under management.
Howard Gellis, head of Blackstone’s Corporate Debt Group, said; “Based on the successes of Blackstone’s private equity and real estate businesses in Europe, and our own assessment of the growing institutionalization of the European debt market, we’ve been preparing to enter that market for years. The key for us was finding the absolute best candidate to represent Blackstone, a leader that can build a business with scale. Debra’s credit-based approach toward investing is in line with the way we run all our investment activities and her reputation and support within the market is outstanding.”
Ms. Anderson has been an active investor in the European leveraged loan market for the past 12 years. Latterly she was the leveraged loan portfolio manager for Intermediate Capital Group Plc where she was responsible for four European CDOs totaling €1.4 billion in loan assets. Prior to that she established and ran an acquisition finance lending business for a major European bank.
Blackstone’s Corporate Debt group currently manages five CDOs, with approximately $3 billion of assets and a mezzanine fund which is currently investing in excess of $1 billion of commitments.
About The Blackstone Group
The Blackstone Group, a private investment and advisory firm with offices in New York, Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, London, Hamburg, Mumbai, and Paris, was founded in 1985. Blackstone’s Corporate Debt Group is currently investing its first mezzanine fund, which has commitments in excess of $1.1 billion, and has six CDO vehicles with total assets of approximately $3.5 billion. In addition to Corporate Debt investing, The Blackstone Group’s core businesses are Private Equity Investing, Private Real Estate Investing, Marketable Alternative Asset Management, Corporate Advisory, and Restructuring and Reorganization Advisory.