New hires for Nordic Mezzanine

Nordic Mezzanine, the mezzanine finance provider which recently closed its second fund on E240m, has announced a brace of appointments at its offices in the UK and Finland.

The firm has appointed two new executives: Olaf Steinebach has joined the firm as an investment manager at the Nordic’s London office. Steinebach was previously with private equity firm Barlage, Knoth & Cie in Munich. He also spent a number of years in investment banking, as an associate with Salomon Smith Barney in Frankfurt and as an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston in London.

Also joining the firm is Tanja Kläusler, who also becomes an investment manager. Kläusler joins Nordic Mezzanine from the Swiss private equity management company Kaelin Management, where she acted as investment adviser. Prior to that, Kläusler spent four years at Ernst & Young in Zurich where she was manager in corporate finance (M&A) and earlier also senior auditor. She will be based in Nordic Mezzanine’s Helsinki office.

In late October, Nordic Mezzanine held a final close of Nordic Mezzanine II, the firm’s second fund, on E240m. The fund will look to make between ten and twelve investments, typically investing E25m per transaction and will invest in the Nordic Area and Germany. Nordic Mezzanine now has over E340m under management in its two mezzanine funds.

In February, Nordic Mezzanine underwrote a mezzanine loan facility for the buyout of Finnish stone wool insulation products maker Paroc, a deal led by Bank of America Private Equity Partners. “Dealflow has been particularly strong since April and we hope to complete a further deal in the near future,” said Vesa Suurmunne, the firm’s chief executive.