Castle Harbour Securities has appointed Eric Daniel, the former Head of Equity Derivatives and Convertible Bond Sales at Citigroup in Paris, to co-manage its new global convertible bond fund.
He will run the Castle Harbour R&D – Pure Global Convertibles Fund with Damien Regnier, previously Portfolio Manager for global convertible bonds at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, who joined Castle Harbour Securities in October.
The boutique financial firm, which provides a range of merchant banking, asset management, trading and advisory services, has also nominated the following people to the fund’s Investment Committee: Kais Laouiti, MD, Castle Harbour Securities; Josh Wong, MD of Castle Harbour’s Merchant Capital Group; with Damien Regnier as CIO and Eric Daniel as Deputy CIO.
Castle Harbour will also appoint three credit analysts to support Eric Daniel and Damien Regnier. The Castle Harbour Securities R&D – Pure Global Convertibles Fund is due to launch in February 2015 following regulatory approval and is being seeded with EUR200 million.
At Citigroup, Eric Daniel served more than 35 clients in Europe, representing over $30 billion convertible bond assets under management. He priced new issues, placed deals and played a key role in Citigroup’s top five ranking in Europe for convertible bond issues. Prior to Citigroup, Daniel was a Senior Convertible Bond Sales-Trader at Bank of America Merrill Lynch after a similar role at Deutsche Bank.
He founded the KBC Financial Products (formerly DE SHAW Securities) Paris office, spending three years there and two years in its London office. His career began in 1990 on the trading floor of the French Bourse Palais Brogniart. He has 17 years of experience in the convertible bond market and 24 years in financial markets.
Faye Fouladi, CEO, Castle Harbour Securities, says: “Eric has been at the leading edge of the convertible bond market during its transition from a market dominated by hedge fund arbitrage strategies to one being driven by long-only managers. His weight of knowledge and experience across several cycles will be great assets to his clients, as will the breadth and depth of our Investment Committee and the up-and-coming junior portfolio managers that we are in the process of appointing.”
Eric Daniel, Senior Portfolio Manager of the Castle Harbour Securities R&D – Pure Global Convertibles Fund, said: “Interest in convertible bonds has grown substantially in the last few months as a number of conditions have aligned in their favour: increased liquidity, a favourable application of Solvency II on these assets, expectations that US interest rates will slowly increase, and a surfeit of favourable valuations.
“Castle Harbour provides the perfect platform for me and this fund, and has assembled a great team to deliver for our clients.”
