Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) has hired Marc Lavine and Diane Wright as Directors in MUFG's Leveraged Finance Sales group. Both will be based in New York and report to Timothy Fischer, Head of Leveraged Finance Sales in the Americas, who joined the company in January.
Mr. Lavine joined the bank on April 13, and Ms. Wright will start on June 29. In their newly created roles, they will be responsible for supporting the distribution of leveraged loans and high-yield bonds in partnership with the bank's Capital Markets team.
"Despite the recent volatility afflicting leveraged finance in the wake of COVID-19, MUFG is committed to expanding its platform for our clients in this area. Leveraged finance remains vital for a range of non-investment grade companies to receive financing, and it's a business that we believe holds long-term growth prospects for us," says John Karabelas, Head of Institutional Investor Sales in the Americas. "Marc and Diane bring impeccable credentials and valuable experience that will serve our expansion through this challenging time, as the market recovers, and well into the future."
Most recently, Mr. Lavine served as Director of Capital Markets with Simon Baron Development. Previously, he was a Managing Director in the Leveraged Finance Sales Group at Deutsche Bank. Ms. Wright will join MUFG from RBC Capital Markets and was previously at Credit Suisse, having held the position of Director in High Yield, Distressed and Leveraged Loan Sales at both institutions.
"With plans to double our headcount in leveraged finance sales before the year is out, we are staying the course in maintaining our full lifecycle business model—from origination to distribution and secondary trading—toward becoming a top corporate-banking debt house in the Americas across the credit spectrum," says Bill Mansfield, Head of Global Markets for the Americas.
MUFG is the largest publicly-traded bank in the world and the fifth largest by assets, with approximately $2.9 trillion.1 The bank provides a full suite of financing and fixed-income advisory services to corporate clients, financial institutions and private-equity sponsors, thus serving borrowers in addition to financing investment opportunities.
MUFG had originally established a strong foundation in the investment-grade sector and later extended its coverage to include leveraged finance. It was the eighth largest underwriter of U.S. investment-grade bonds in 2019 and in the first quarter of 2020, according to Refinitiv. The bank has advanced significantly in the high-yield bond league tables and was the 11th largest underwriter of U.S. high-yield bonds in the first quarter of 2020, according to Bloomberg.