Credit Suisse exec Martin joins Goldman: Reuters

Sarah-Marie Martin has resigned as co-head of Credit Suisse Group AG’s Americas financial sponsors group, which focuses on private equity firms, to join Goldman Sachs Group Inc, people familiar with the matter said.

Martin’s departure comes after Credit Suisse passed on financing several leveraged buyouts this year, including Apollo Global Management LLC’s $6.9 billion acquisition of home security company ADT Corp, as a rout in high-yield bonds and loans weighed on its ability to sell them on.

There is, however, no suggestion that Martin’s move was driven by dissatisfaction with Credit Suisse. She will join Goldman’s financial sponsors group in New York as a partner and report to the global head of that team, Alison Mass, the sources said.

Martin, who spearheaded Credit Suisse’s relationships with several buyout firms, including Carlyle Group LP and Clayton Dubilier & Rice LLC, will serve a “gardening” leave of several months before starting officially at Goldman later this year, the sources added.

The sources asked not to be identified because Martin’s move is not yet public. Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse declined to comment, while Martin did not respond to a request for comment.

A mother of five children who in 2015 was named Working Mother magazine’s “Working Mother of the Year,” Martin joined Credit Suisse First Boston in 1995 as an investment banking analyst.

Most recently, she co-headed Credit Suisse’s Americas financial sponsors group alongside Tom Davidov and managed a team of 50 people.

Several banks are seeing more turnover in their sponsor and leveraged finance teams in the aftermath of the jitters in the junk debt markets. Kevin Lockhart, global head of Jefferies Group LLC’s leveraged finance, and Adam Sokoloff, global head of the bank’s sponsors group, departed earlier this month after Jefferies restructured those teams, sources told Reuters at the time.

Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Mike Stone for Reuters

Photo: The Credit Suisse logo is seen at the headquarters in downtown Milan, Italy, March 9, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini