Pictet Asset Management (“Pictet AM”) continues to strengthen its Fixed Income offering with the recruitment of four private debt specialists.

The new Private Debt team is headed by Andreas Klein in London, who joined Pictet AM in early 2022. Andreas was previously a Managing Director at ICG where he spent 8 years helping to set up and build out the direct lending strategy.

Andreas is joined in November by Axel Cordonnier and Jan Reichenbach, Regional Heads in the Private Debt team and Christian Eckert, Senior Investment Manager.

Axel Cordonnier has been named Head of Private Debt, France and is based in Paris. Prior to Pictet AM, Axel was at Ares Management for over a decade where he was a Principal in their private debt investment team.

Jan Reichenbach is Head of Private Debt for the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) region. He was previously a Managing Director and Head of DACH and NL Private Debt at Muzinich where he established and grew their mid-market direct lending platform for German speaking Europe as well as for the Netherlands. Jan is based in Frankfurt.

Jan will be joined in Frankfurt by Christian Eckert, Senior Investment Manager, who will support sourcing and execution in the DACH region. Previously, Christian worked for NIBC Bank in Frankfurtin the leveraged finance team.

The team will draw on Pictet AM’s global infrastructure and investment resources. A new direct lending fund, which will focus on corporate-lending in the lower mid-market segment, will launch externally in early 2023.

Raymond Sagayam, Chief Investment Officer, Fixed Income, commented: “We are excited about this strategic development for Pictet Asset Management, giving our clients access to a full fixed income spectrum across both listed and private markets. This comes at a time when we foresee a renaissance in fixed income investing and the expertise our new private debt team brings to Pictet AM will be a boost for our clients as they seek to capitalise on the attractive risk-return profile of the asset class."

Andreas Klein, Head of Private Debt added: “The pedigree and knowledge repository that embodies Pictet’s credit heritage serves as the ideal platform to develop a focused and differentiated private debt strategy that offers our investors and borrowers a unique and high value-add proposition. The quality and experience of our team members is crucial in our pursuit of a proprietary origination strategy and high asset-selectivity, particularly given the current macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility and headwinds.”