Apollo’s European loan chief Abrams steps back

The business line, which includes two funds, is now being run by Sanjay Patel, who is managing partner of the EPF business as well as Apollo’s all-around head of Europe, sister website peHUB reported. Patel was named overall head of Europe in January, according to Apollo’s website.

Charles Zehren, a spokesman for Apollo, declined to comment on Abrams’ decision to move into a senior adviser role.

Abrams joined Apollo in 2007 and co-founded the nonperforming loan business to take advantage of bank deleveraging in Europe and to focus on investing in distressed assets or assets sold by distressed sellers, including nonperforming and performing loans.

The 2007-vintage Apollo European Principal Finance Fund raised 1.3 billion euros ($1.8 billion). European Principal Finance Fund II, a 2012 vintage pool, collected 2.5 billion euros. Fund II was generating a 1.05x multiple as of Dec. 31, 2013, according to alternative asset data provider Bison. Fund I was producing a net IRR of 16 percent as of March 31, 2014, according to Apollo’s most recent quarterly filing. Fund II is about 50 percent deployed, according to one of the sources, an LP with knowledge of the fund.

Prior to Apollo, Abrams was a managing director in the leveraged finance group of Credit Suisse from 1996 to 2007. He founded and was the head of the specialty finance investment business at the bank from 2004 to 2007. He was also a founding member and co-head of the global distressed sales and trading group at Credit Suisse and its predecessor Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, according to his biography on Apollo’s website.

Patel joined Apollo in 2010 as head of international private equity after working at Goldman Sachs as co-head of European and Indian private equity for the principal investment area, according to his biography on the Apollo website.

Chris Witkowsky is editor of peHUB.

Correction: A version of this story posted on July 10 misidentified the performance of Fund I.