Direct Lending Portfolio Monitoring & Leverage Solutions Associate

Job Title: Direct Lending Portfolio Monitoring & Leverage Solutions Associate

Contract Type: Permanent, full-time

Location: London, St Pauls

Department: European Direct Lending

What the Hiring Manager says….

Your role will be at the centre of our direct lending strategy, a bridge between the investment team and multiple internal as well as external stakeholders. It will be fast paced and technical, where problem solving attitude is paramount. Your days will be dynamic, ranging from preparing reporting for financing providers to coordinating with treasury and operations to modelling ad-hoc analysis for the PMs or investors.

Summary of our opportunity

• Assist the Direct Lending team with (i)  data collection, maintenance and analysis; (ii) portfolio reporting; (iii) negotiation and maintenance of fund leverage facilities, etc.

• This role will sit in the European Direct Lending team, alongside investment professionals.

• Mostly European focus with some exposure to the US.

• Other key stakeholders: The role will interact with Operations, Treasury, Marketing, Finance & Accounting, Legal.

Primary responsibilities for this role include (but are not limited to):

• Assist the Direct Lending team with centralized data collection relating to the performance of portfolio companies, loan information, as well as reporting and deal bibles;

• Maintain, quality check and validate the information in central databases at asset, fund and portfolio level, coordinating with internal stakeholders (IT, operations, marketing, treasury) on behalf of the investment team;

• Assist the Direct Lending team with the fund financing effort, providing input relating to portfolio construction and characteristics to help the negotiations and structuring of Asset Backed Lending facilities, coordinating as required with internal stakeholders;

• Maintain and supervise the borrowing base models, with a focus on optimizing borrowing capacity and cash management;

• Prepare recurring and ad hoc portfolio analysis for Portfolio Managers, to assist with portfolio monitoring and fundraising activity.

Key Requirements/ Qualifications

You will have demonstrable experience of: 

• Good understanding of the direct lending strategy, 2-3 years’ experience in asset management, investment banking (especially ABL desk) and fund finance advisory is considered a plus;

• Good understanding of the LMA documentation, including general commercial terms of leveraged finance transactions, as well as general structuring aspects (loans, bonds, RCF);

• Good credit analysis skills: ability to analyse financial performance and capital structure of individual companies, identify credit risks and merits, as well as signs of underperformance;

• Good understanding of structured finance and asset based lending (including securitisations);

• Excellent data analysis and excel modelling skills. 

Personal Attributes

Personal attributes that will make you successful in this role include but are not limited to: 

Essential

• High attention to detail

• Proactiveness

• Excellent communication skills

• Strong collaboration / stakeholder management

• Multi-tasking

• Intellectual curiosity

Desirable

• Commercial

• Entrepreneurial / open to take on new responsibilities / learning agility

• Accountability / willingness to take ownership  

• Empathetic

Our Global Benefits Framework is centred around these 3 key attributes:<