Zak Summerscale joins ICG to head up the Credit Fund Management business for Europe and Asia Pacific and Kam Tugnait joins as Director, High Yield Bonds reporting to Zak, both join from Babson Capital.
ICG has seen increased demand for both liquid and illiquid credit strategies, given the low returns from traditional fixed income strategies and is focused on the development of its capital markets asset management business. ICG’s 27 year track record in alternative fixed income investing and bottom up approach to credit fundamentals means we are well positioned to advance our footprint with these strategic senior hires.
Zak has 20 years’ experience in managing secured loan, high yield and distressed strategies. He was a driving force behind Babson Capital becoming one of the largest and best performing European sub investment grade credit managers and has been awarded the FE Trustnet Alpha Manager award for three years running, given to the top 10% of UK fund managers. He was also the sole portfolio manager on their award winning European loan fund. Under his leadership Babson’s liquid European high yield AUM increased from €5bn in high yield strategies in 2011 to in excess of €12.5bn today.
Kam has over 25 years’ experience in managing high yield bonds and was one of the pioneers in European high yields. He joined Babson in 2011 and was a key player in both launching several high yield bond funds at the firm and growing AUM at the business. For all funds where he was sole or co-portfolio manager, Kam is rated AAA by Citywire, as all these UCITS funds have a top decile ranking since their respective inception dates.
Commenting on the appointments, Benoît Durteste, Executive Director, ICG said:
Our investors are telling us they want greater access to alternative fixed income strategies and we
needed to invest to augment our position as a European leader, and prepare to scale up and offer
more global opportunities. A key component in driving this growth is having senior leadership with a
proven track record, and depth of understanding of what investors need, and where to access new
opportunities. ICG is delighted to have attracted two top talents to reinforce our team and advance
our growth in this area.
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