Rothschild builds mezz team

NM Rothschild & Sons has recruited Craig Thomson as deputy head of its mezzanine finance team. Thomson joins from Pricoa Capital Group, which wound up its European private equity activities last year to concentrate on its debt financing products. Thomson had been with Pricoa for seven yeas, most recently as a director. Prior to this, he spent eight years at Deloitte in the UK and US, latterly as a senior manager in the Midlands’ corporate finance department.

Thomson will report to John Sealy, who joined from ABN AMRO Capital to head Rothschild’s new mezzanine finance operation a year ago. The team also includes Neil Cox, who joined the team from Rothschild’s investment banking operation in March 2003.

Rothschild Mezzanine focuses upon mezzanine investments in the £2m to £10m range, targeting a wide range of transaction types, including MBO, MBIs, leveraged acquisitions, recapitalisations and sponsorless development finance opportunities.

The team works both alongside Rothschild’s leveraged finance teams in Birmingham, Leeds, London and Manchester in order to provide a one-stop senior and mezzanine package, and also on a standalone basis, in situations where Rothschild has no other debt exposure.

In 2003 the team invested in excess of £20m in mezzanine transactions including the acquisition in March of ABN AMRO’s mezzanine portfolio.