BlackRock cuts private credit executives hired pre-HPS deal

[NEW YORK] BlackRock is cutting about 10 people from its private financing solutions group as it continues to integrate its US$12 billion acquisition of HPS Investment Partners.

At least three people who were on the firm’s private credit team prior to the purchase are among those affected, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. The asset manager is reducing its workforce by about 250 globally, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month.

Michael Weissenburger and Joshua Friedman, both executive directors, have left the firm, said the sources, asking not to be identified discussing private information. Christian Donohue, a managing director, is in the process of leaving, they said.

A representative for BlackRock declined to comment.

TCP troubles

Donohue is listed as a managing director in presentations highlighting the investment team for the firm’s publicly traded lending fund, BlackRock TCP Capital.

Last week, the fund said that it expects to cut the net value of its assets by 19 per cent after being hurt by its exposure to e-commerce aggregators and troubled home improvement company Renovo Home Partners. Shares of the vehicle fell as much as 16.7 per cent on Monday (Jan 26) after disclosing the writedowns.

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Donohue, who joined BlackRock in 2018 as part of the firm’s acquisition of Tennenbaum Capital Partners, was once on the board of Tricolor Holdings, a subprime auto lender that collapsed last year amid allegations of fraud. BlackRock invested US$90 million in convertible preferred equity into Tricolor in 2021. Tricolor’s founder, Daniel Chu, and three other executives were charged with alleged fraud, with two pleading guilty.

Weissenburger joined the firm in 2021 and Friedman began his most recent stint there in 2022, according to their LinkedIn pages.

The cuts give some insight into how BlackRock has been reshaping its private credit business since closing the HPS deal in July. It created the private financing solutions group to bring together the firm’s private credit, CLO and other financing units under a single platform following the purchase. BLOOMBERG