FrontPoint Partners has added an investment team to its platform which will manage a direct lending strategy dedicated to originating and investing in secured loans to small and mid-sized businesses primarily in the US.
Stephen Czech will lead the team and will be joined by Mark Newlun, Sze Ling Wan and Paul Ahrens.
The team will be based in FrontPoint’s Greenwich, Connecticut office.
Czech has over 21 years of leveraged lending and corporate finance experience and was the founder and portfolio manager of Contrarian Capital Finance, a middle market-focused direct lending strategy. At Contrarian, Czech successfully built the investment team and executed the strategy for four and a half years.
Czech was most recently a managing director and portfolio manager at Gottex Fund Management. As part of an agreement between FrontPoint Partners and Gottex, Gottex clients will continue to be able to access investment opportunities sourced by Czech and his investment team.
Dan Waters, co-chief executive of FrontPoint Partners, says: “Steve brings to FrontPoint extensive direct lending, corporate finance and corporate restructuring experience across numerous industries and companies. We are extremely pleased that he and his team are joining our platform to manage a strategy that will focus on investments in loan opportunities that would not typically attract the attention of conventional banks, commercial finance firms, collateralized loan obligation investors, hedge funds and mezzanine investors.”
“As many direct lending industry participants exit the direct lending business or gravitate towards larger borrowers, middle-market businesses have been left with few financing sources,” says Czech. “I am very excited to join FrontPoint and leverage my experience to help middle-market borrowers gain necessary access to credit in this challenging market environment.”
