Barings pauses new private credit deals amid Corinthia lawsuit
Barings has paused all new private credit investments following the departure of its private credit team to Nomura-backed Corinthia Global management.
Last week, more than 20 members of the Barings private credit division – including co-heads Adam Wheeler and Ian Fowler – left to join the newly-launched Corinthia.
In response, Barings is suing Corinthia as well as former employees Fowler and Kelsey Tucker, calling the move “one of the largest corporate raids at an asset manager in years”.
The lawsuit accuses Fowler and Tucker of misusing confidential information to recruit Barings employees. Barings aims to stop Corinthia from poaching more employees and block it from soliciting Barings customers, as well as claiming damages resulting from the team lift.
According to a client letter seen by Bloomberg, Barings has now opted to pause its private credit fund activity while the bank transitions to new leadership.
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“In accordance with and as permitted by the fund documents, we will continue to call capital to pay down financing facilities, to honour previously committed or approved deals, add-ons or unfunded facilities, or for expenses,” the letter read.
“For our commingled private funds and our private segregated funds, regardless of whether a key person event has been triggered, we are pausing on making brand new investments while we continue the transition to new investment leadership. We will continue to fund existing commitments.”
A Barings spokesperson later confirmed that certain private-credit funds have been paused, but stated that the firm is still able to invest across vehicles such as its business development company and other funds across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Following the departure of the private credit team, Barings appointed Bryan High to head up the division. High was previously head of capital solutions and a co-portfolio manager for capital solutions funds, and has been at Barings since 2007.
Interim investment committees for private finance have been put in place in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Tyler Gately has been named head of private credit in North America, while Stuart Mathieson has become head of private credit in Europe and Asia-Pacific.
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