Among clean desks and quiet rooms, the work had just started. Behind a closed door, a due diligence meeting was ongoing, while part of the capital markets team was already on the road, heading for a conference abroad.

A lot has happened at Barings too in the last few months; it dismissed Corinthia’s offer to buy its loan portfolio, filed a law suit — the one topic understandably off the table during the conversation with Wilton — made new hires and closed $2.5bn across 56 deals globally as at the end of August, 9fin recently reported.

In the meantime, Corinthia’s new team was warming up on the sidelines. Just about a year after founder Paul Weightman unveiled the project for this Nomura-backed newcomer to follow the global private credit opportunity, now it’s the time to prove how fast this opportunity can be grasped.

1. How have the last few months been and when was the official start of Corinthia’s private credit team?

Well, it was good to take a little bit of time off, but it was hard being out of the market. We formally left the old shop in early June, and through the summer it has been quiet as a number of us in Europe were under restrictive covenants and we've honoured those.

So really this is the start of the business in terms of Europe. It’s great now to have that behind us and to be fully open and full steam ahead.

2. What is the current setting of the team?

We now have 20 people here in London, we have space for another 20, so we have a fully operational office. Globally we're already 35 employees with offices in New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Singapore, London, and Frankfurt.

There's been a focus on key hires and so now, as well as investment teams, we have a chief operating officer, general counsel, head of technology, and head of risk. We are building out a fully functioning global platform.

And we're recruiting. We have five more people signed up that will join over Q4 and Q1 and that's both front office and back office.

Ultimately, we've all worked together for a long time. I hope that this will accelerate us over the first steps.

3. So, what happened? What is the background of your decision to join Corinthia?

It wasn't an easy decision because we're very proud of the private credit business that we built at the old shop and the strong market position that we established, particularly in the core mid-market here in Europe and in North America.

But clearly all was not well because 20 people don't leave on the same day if it is.

And I think it's much like some of the challenges you encounter in large multi-asset, multi-national businesses; there’s more bureaucracy, there's a lack of alignment of interest, a challenge for resources, and different varying priorities. Ultimately, when I was approached to join Corinthia, I found it a very compelling proposition — too exciting an opportunity to miss.

And clearly others felt the same because here we are.

The whole opportunity is exciting: to be in control of our own destiny. If something doesn't work it is our problem, we need to sort it out.

All of the back office, all of the investor experience, how we deal with people, we are now in control of that and whilst this is a challenge it is exciting too because that hasn't been the case historically.

4. There was obviously some criticism after you left, and some people questioned the need for another private credit lender in the market: what is the competitive edge Corinthia can offer?

What I would say to that is the private credit market continues to grow. Private equity owners prefer the certainty and the flexibility that direct lenders can bring, not only at the start when they are trying to win a deal, but also through the life of the investment.

The attractiveness of the asset class to core private equity owners is clear.

Our competitive edge and where we can fit in is that we are an experienced and well-known team with a shared history, a common purpose and a long track record of delivery.

As a team, we hold long-term, deep relationships; we are not new to this. Those relationships with private equity players and advisors are key. And so far, we are very pleased with the response we have had from the PE community.

Those deep relationships, experience, delivery, and execution are the hard stuff. That's probably why a lot of start-ups fail when they put together a collection of random people who have never worked together. There's no consensus or consistency of approach, or understanding how it all works.

It gives us confidence that there is currently a hole in the mid-market that our experience and track record position us well to fill.

5. Amid an increasingly competitive fundraising environment with jumbo funds breaking records and newer ones struggling, how have LPs received Corinthia’s proposition so far?

We have not launched Corinthia to just be another private credit business. We are management-owned, we are running an independent global firm dedicated to private credit and are fiercely proud of that.

We benefit from significant institutional support through Nomura and have a strong and cohesive team that has operated together for many years and are trying to do things differently, acting with transparency, leveraging and investing in technology to make sure that we produce an excellent client experience for investors.

Other new entrants won't have any of those characteristics and I think that is what will stand us apart and give us a clear role in the marketplace. The team has an extensive track record in the core mid-market which we view as the least competitive segment.

Jumbo fundraisers are excellent news for the private credit market: it demonstrates the continued and growing attractiveness of the overall asset class, and that growth frankly gives room for players to develop.

But the competition for the jumbo players is different. They are competing really with investment banks, with broadly syndicated markets, with high yield markets. The mid-market, which is our core, is still very different;, it has relationship driven dynamics and I think there is plenty of space for a truly global dedicated mid-market independent.

With the number of officers, the personnel in the key geographies, we have one clear purpose, we have one process, procedures and clear alignment. That is a rare commodity.

6. Corinthia started with seed capital from Nomura — what is the fundraising strategy and what is the target?

There are very active work streams at the moment on fundraising alongside the Nomura seed capital. I can't say too much until it's done, but we are pleased with progress to date.

Whilst it's still early, we are pleased with the response from the institutional market, which has been very supportive, and it's great to be out there and being able to tell our story.

I don't want to be drawn on a number for it to be out there, but compared with our original plans, we are ahead of where we thought we would be.

7. Talking about deals, is the team already working on financings? What are the expectations in terms of type and amount of deals you could do on a regular year?

Very valid question but it is only week two so from that perspective we are still very much in business and fund formation mode.

These processes, particularly fund formation, takes time so there have been no loans as yet — but we expect to be in a position to lend soon and to be investing in transactions during November or December.

Our target will be the core mid-market and by that you probably define EBITDA somewhere between €10m to €100m. Typically in the US, we have always done slightly larger deals as a team, and I suspect that will continue.

It will be a private equity-focused strategy, leveraging, harnessing the relationships that we have in place, so similar to the experience we had in the past.

I hope that we will be challenging each other for who delivers our first deal. Of course, I would like it to be Europe. I don't want to limit our ambition; the team has been a sizeable player in the mid-market, both North America and Europe. I hope we surprise ourselves on how quickly we can grow.

I think there is a real opportunity, this is still a growth market.

8. What are your expectations for the next few months in terms of opportunities and challenges for the market?

While we have been out of the marketplace the market has probably been quite slow. We have seen a lack of activity in deal flow and M&A through the start of this year.

However, now we are starting to see clear signs of that picking up, particularly in the core mid-market. Traditionally that is more resilient in terms of volumes, and we are seeing a return to economic confidence, interest rates starting to reduce, alongside pent-up demand of private equity owners to sell and transact. That will push the market forward, whether that is Q4 or whether it is 2025, but it is coming.

So maybe it is luck rather than great foresight, but it could be a great time for Corinthia to enter the marketplace.

The opportunity is still big because the attractiveness to private equity is clear. So, in terms of what is key, it is being able to deliver and to maintain commitments through the life of an investment to help a private equity owner maximise its returns. That’s historically what we have been good at as a team, and we will look to do again.

That creates its own demand so we are confident that the market is broad enough for us to find a suitable role.

The challenge from an investment perspective is always to keep a strong focus on credit quality and discipline when investing and that will be a very clear focus.

9. Can you share with us something you had always wanted to do and finally had the time to do during your gardening leave?

Actually, I did some gardening because my wife is a keen gardener and was delighted to have a trainee to advise and teach. I'm hopeless. I lack motivation it's fair to say, but my wife is very keen, so I had no excuse: I had to help.

What I really enjoyed was a bit of quality family time. My kids are both about to disappear to university and spending some time together as a family was great. We had a trip down to Cornwall, a bit of hiking on the coastal paths, paddling in the sea, which was absolutely freezing, but still fantastic.

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