Leveraged Finance Associate

Overall purpose of the role:

The ASF London team originates and executes sponsor-driven and leveraged corporate acquisition finance transactions in the UK, DACH, Benelux and Scandinavia while supporting broader EMEA origination effort out of London. An Associate in the ASF London works under the supervision of a senior deal team member of ASF and supports the presentation of the bank's debt capabilities to financial sponsors and corporates, supporting deal teams in identifying financial sponsor-driven and leveraged corporate transactions which permit Natixis to underwrite and syndicate leveraged loans, High Yield bonds and Private Equity Sponsor Finance loans.

Main responsibilities of the role:

• Originate, arrange and execute leveraged finance transactions predominantly for PE sponsors in UK and Northern Europe (i.e. UK, Benelux, Nordics, Germany and Switzerland) with an originate to distribute and product agnostic approach (Term Loans, high yield bonds).
• Originates deal opportunities by identifying likely transactions and working with Sponsor Coverage to initiate initial engagement with potentially interested sponsors.
• Manages the pitching phase comprising initial analysis of the transaction, defining Natixis financing views, managing the process around preparation of the marketing materials needed to accurately portray Natixis’ capabilities and financing views with respect to specific opportunities.
• Actively discusses and negotiates commercial points with the syndication team.
• Manages and supports the deal team in preparing the internal presentations, memo, materials needed to seek and obtain BizCom and Credit Committee approval to pursue and develop our business.
• Manages the relationship and engagement with financial sponsors on each deal to agree commercial points, manage deal dynamics and convince the financial sponsor to select Natixis as financing bank.
• Evaluate and conduct in-depth analysis of new opportunities with a specific focus on credit and underwriting risks.
• Manage internal credit process and present/support transactions to committees.
• Ensure with the team a pro-active monitoring and review of portfolio exposures.
• Foster a client-centric culture, provide the best service to external and internal clients and facilitate cross selling with other business lines.
• Negotiates term sheets and legal documentation with financial sponsors and their legal counsel for syndicated leveraged loan and High yield bond.
• Demonstrates the teamwork and leadership needed to execute transactions in coordination with the following Natixis teams: Financial Sponsors Coverage, Syndications, Sales & trading, ASF global leadership in Paris, ASF teams, Investment Banking, Real Assets, Risk Department, Legal, Compliance, Agency, Ratings Advisory and Global Portfolio Management.
• Trains and develops junior team members.

Required Skills/Qualifications/Experience:

• Strong background in financial analysis and sound modeling capabilities.
• Accuracy and attention to detail.
• Ability to work within tight deadlines.
• Ability to communicate and defend credit analysis and credit judgments clearly.
• Good communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to learn quickly in a dynamic environment.
• Very good technical, numeracy and analytical skills.