Merrill leveraged head resigns

Andrew McCullagh has stepped down as Merrill Lynch‘s head of EMEA leveraged finance, telling clients he intends to take the summer off before taking up an unspecified buyside role. McCullagh has been in his current role since 2004 when he took over the business as part of a wider reorganisation of leveraged finance globally.

Malcolm Stewart and Steve Wellington will take over as co-heads of the European leveraged finance business. Stewart has been head of EMEA leveraged finance capital markets since he joined the firm in 2005 from Citigroup. Wellington has been with the firm since 1999 and was responsible for corporate leveraged and acquisition finance before becoming COO of EMEA leveraged finance and financial sponsors in 2007, a function he will retain.

• Private equity firm Carlyle Group has hired David Balint as a Sydney-based director managing the team’s investment strategy in Australia and New Zealand. He reports to Eric Mason, head of Carlyle Asia leveraged finance group.

Balint was previously a director in the leveraged and acquisition business at ANZ and also has a background in project finance.