A boutique US based distressed debt fund was looking increase their exposure to European distressed debt. The mandate was based on a senior pan-European analyst with multiple language skills that was willing to relocate to New York but the client would only consider candidates that had previously worked for another US headquartered distressed fund.

When meeting with the client we talked through all of the options in the European market that met this criteria on paper. Before going to market with the role, we discussed how opening the position up to candidates that had broader credit experience from within a European credit shop (that still have US investment banking experience) may actually provide them with more of the all-round experience that they were looking for. This meant it wasn’t necessary to limit their options to a small sample of relatively difficult and expensive to move analysts based in London.

The client ended up interviewing eight candidates; six from US distressed shops and two from European credit shops. Whilst progressing through the rounds, the client decided that the two candidates from the European shop had the strongest all-round skillset. In the end, a highly academic credit specialist with a few years of US banking experience and few years of rounded credit experience was chosen. The fund has now doubled its exposure to European distressed debt.