ABN Amro continues to build leveraged team

ABN Amro has announced the appointment of two new members to its leveraged finance team, which is headed by Nirukt Sapru, Global Head of Leveraged Finance and Emerging Markets at the bank.

Although profits from many of ABN Amro's investment banking operations have slumped, leveraged finance is still seen to offer significant opportunities to European banks such as ABN who can exploit an extensive network of commercial banking client contacts.

Tom Swift is joining from Bank of Scotland, where he has been an Associate Director in acquisition finance since 1998. Previously, he had been with Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and NatWest in their structured finance groups. He is the sixth recruit joining the bank's UK Leveraged Finance division this year.

Jean Dado, formerly of CSFB's leveraged finance syndications team, has been appointed to the European Leveraged Syndications team. Previously, he was an analyst at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette's leveraged finance and high yield group.

The bank has also promoted Didier Simons to Senior Vice President within its European leveraged finance business in the Netherlands.