CAIA London - Direct Lending

Dear IMC Members, 

CAIA London cordially invites you to attend their inaugural Direct Lending Panel where we will hear from senior figures in the alternative lending industry. The sector has grown in size and prominence since the start of the credit crisis with growing number of funds and money deployed in the loan market, which presents attractive alternative to fixed income market. But regulatory challenges, cost setting up the loan funds and competition persist. The key issues and pinpoint the most profitable sectors in this dynamic market will be discussed. 

Agenda (03 - December - 2015)

6.00pm: Registration 

6.30pm: Introduction, panel discussion starts 

8.00 - 9.00pm: Networking reception sponsored by Simmons and Simmons. 

Moderated by Alistair Hill, Partner, Simmons & Simmons

• Paul Newsome, Head of Investment Management, Private Assets, Unigestion
• William  Dinning, Head of Investment Strategy, Coal Pension Trustee Investment
• Tricia Ward, Partner, Head of Research and Investments, Absolute Return Partners

Speaker Bios

Paul Newsome, Head of Investment Management, Private Assets, Unigestion. 

Paul is the Head of Investment Management within the Private Assets team and a member of Unigestion’s Private Assets Investment Committee. He joined Unigestion in 2002. Paul began his career in 1995 as a Financial Analyst at Procter & Gamble. He then advised on public and private capital raising for technology companies at Quartz Capital and later was an investment officer at BancBoston Capital, making and managing venture capital investments in Europe. Paul has a first class Master's degree in engineering, economics and management from Oxford University and is a Chartered Management Accountant. 

William  Dinning, Head of Investment Strategy, Coal Pension Trustee Investment 

Bill is Head of Investment Strategy at Coal Pension Trustees Investment Ltd. He has over thirty years of investment experience, gained in Edinburgh, London, Hong Kong and New York. Prior to joining Coal Pension Trustees in 2013, he was Head of Strategy at AEGON Asset Management (now Kames Capital) based in Edinburgh. He joined AEGON in May 2004 from UBS, where he was a global investment strategist in the equity research department, and before that he was a strategist at Merrill Lynch. 

Tricia Ward, Partner, Head of Research and Investments, Absolute Return Partners 

Tricia Ward joined Absolute Return Partners in April 2008.  Absolute Return Partners is a boutique investment advisory firm that focuses mainly on attractive, niche investment strategies, tailored to suit their institutional and family office clients.    Tricia was initially hired as an analyst with responsibility for researching new and existing fund managers, focusing on credit and insurance linked securities.  This later extended to include management and research of various types of lending and royalty strategies, amongst others.  Tricia was appointed Head of Research and Investments and named as a Partner in 2010.  Tricia is also a member of the Firm’s Investment and Management Committees.  She has over 16 years’ experience in hedge funds and investment banking. 

Before joining Absolute Return Partners, Tricia spent 3 1/2 years at KBC AIM, a hedge fund in the City of London, where she developed the finance function and managed front and back office hedge fund projects.

Tricia began her career with 5 years at Goldman Sachs having been responsible for establishing product control and reporting for growing businesses, such as funding, prime brokerage and pan-European shares. Tricia is a Chartered Accountant and holds a JtHons Maths & Management degree from the University of Nottingham.

Alistair Hill, Partner, Simmons & Simmons

Alistair specialises in corporate lending (with a particular focus on leveraged finance) with significant experience advising borrowers, sponsors, banks, alternative credit providers and agents/security trustees. He recently acted for Chiltern International on the financing for its purchase of Theorem Clinical Research. The financing for this acquisition was funded by the largest unitranche facility in Europe so far this year. Alistair is recommended in the Legal 500 (2015) where he is described as “commercial and reliable”.