BNP expands Australia presence by hiring banker for leverage finance market

BNP Paribas has hired a senior leveraged finance banker in Sydney as the French bank expands its presence in one of Asia Pacific’s busiest markets for the debt class.

Peter Medynski has joined BNP in a newly-created role as director, loan capital markets, according to a spokesperson for the bank. He reports to Chris Ruffa, who heads up the global capital markets group for Australia, in Sydney and Anshul Gupta, managing director for global capital markets in Singapore.

He was previously with French bank Credit Agricole for close to six years in a similar role, according to his LinkedIn profile.

BNP’s expansion into the leveraged and acquisition finance market comes at a time when activity is picking up in Asia Pacific. Loan volumes backing M&A transactions closed at US$35 billion last year, with the final quarter accounting for US$14 billion alone, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.

The Australian leveraged finance market is having a strong start to the year. Financings in market include DAZN Group’s A$1.8 billion (S$1.5 billion) loan to buy Australian pay-television company Foxtel Group, Pacific Equity Partners’ (PEP) A$700 million borrowing to takeover Freight Management Holdings and a separate A$800 million leverage buyout loan for PEP’s acquisition of SG Fleet Group. BLOOMBERG