Catella Markets remains active in turbulent conditions

Catella Corporate Finance is currently highly active despite the negative climate in the property market. "We see business potential in the current turbulent market," says Per Johannes.

Per Johannes, who is head of Catella Markets AB, took up his position at Catella Corporate Finance during the summer. He has 18 years experience of traditional investment banking, most recently from Carnegie, where he worked for eight years. Prior to that he worked at Alfred Berg and Handelsbanken. Although recently established, Catella Markets is actually made up of the previous Capital Markets Group (Kapitalmarknadsgruppen) within Catella Corporate Finance. The aim of the revamp was to organise all capital market-related licenses - as required by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority - in a single company.

Although he describes himself as a generalist, Per focuses his expertise on listed company deals, with high-level transaction advisory for capital market players.

Peter Bergmann-Stumpp, at Catella Markets, started at Catella Corporate Finance in August of the current year. Before that he had spent eight years at Carnegie - preceded by four years at ABB Financial Services. Peter is responsible for Debt advisory.

Although his professional profile is wide-ranging, Peter was in charge of listed property companies at Carnegie's Investment Banking division. He has considerable experience in working with a variety of capital structure related issues, such as for example acquisition financing, debt to equity swaps, restructurings and private placements.

Magnus Jönsson, at Catella Markets, started att Catella Corporate Finance during this summer. Also Magnus comes most recently from Carnegie where he spent seven years. Before that he worked for seven years at Enskilda, the American law firm Sullivan & Cromwell and Lindahl.

He has a vast experience from capital markets transactions across all sectors but also from privately negotiated deals. Magnus is originally a lawyer which adds an additional dimension to Catellas capital markets expertise.

Both Per, Magnus and Peter strengthen the skills on the balance sheet's liabilities side (meaning equity and liabilities) at Catella Corporate Finance, and all three of them have a solid capital market perspective. Meanwhile, on the assets side of the balance sheet, Catella Corporate Finance has long been a market leader.

What was it about Catella that attracted you?

"I was attracted by the sector focus on property, as well as all co-workers' skills and the company's impressive track record. I feel that Catella is an entrepreneurial and versatile corporate group. Moving from concept to action is easy and fast," explains Per.

"Catella has a long history of creative solutions. I'm attracted by the idea of implementing a concept rather than analysing it to death first," says Peter.

"In a more complex world, sector focus becomes even more important. I have hard to imagine a player with better knowledge, contacts and track record within a specific sector than Catella", says Magnus.

Who else make up Capital Markets and in what areas are you active?

Today we are eight people within Capital Markets. Except for us three new members, we have five persons with long experience and broad competence within capital markets transactions. Per Hagman, that has been with Capital Markets for more than 10 years and before that worked at HQ. Dan Liljeberg, that has 7 years experience within Capital Markets and before that worked for Carnegie. Sebastian Schlasberg that has worked for a couple of years, first att the Malmö office of Catella, and since over a year with us at Capital Markets. Mikael Hesselvall, that has been with us a little more than six months and, last but not least, Michael Moschewitz, which, even though he formally is employed within Catella Danmark, we include him in our group. Michael mostly works within debt advisory.

"In brief, our advisory services can be broken down into four areas:

1) Conventional corporate finance activities, such as working on PEAB's bid for PEAB Industri, as well as the stock exchange listing of Klövern, Balder, Dagon and others.

2) We also work with capital raisings outside of stock markets, including the creation of new corporate structures. By way of example, I may mention that we are currently working with a well-known player who has transferred a property portfolio into a recently established company, into which new investors are injecting a sizeable amount of capital. Moreover, we plan to raise capital for a new property company in co-operation with high-profile players who plan to capitalise on the opportunities offered in the current market climate.

3) Loan book transactions. The sale of real estate related loan portfolios is an entirely new segment. We are currently involved in a commission on behalf of an international bank with substantial exposure to the Nordic market.

To date, Swedish banks have not been hit very heavily by the financial crisis; however, there is no shortage of international banks that have financed major Nordic property portfolios with a high loan-to-value ratio," notes Per Johannes.

4) Restructuring: in this area, we are in the early stages of offering restructuring programmes to property companies and banks - ranging from initial analysis to establishing companies designed to own and manage property portfolios - as part of efforts to unburden bank balance sheets if borrowers default on their commitments. However, these activities are conducted throughout Catella Corporate Finance.

We are keenly aware that turbulent financial and property markets also offer business potential," concludes Per Johannes.

Who are your competitors?

Our competitors differ, depending on the particular area. In conventional corporate finance and other capital procurement, I would say that the more conventional investment banks or stockbrokers are our primary competitors - ranging from Öhmans and ABG to Enskilda. Among conventional property consultants, Leimdörfer competes with us in the capital market area. Meanwhile, in loan book transactions, we are challenged primarily by the major global players such as UBS, Rothschild and Barclays. Compared with these actors, Catella Corporate Finance is a small player, but the company offsets this disadvantage by its considerable local expertise. In the area of restructuring, I find it difficult to see any competitor who can meet future requirements as effectively as Catella Corporate Finance, which actually has its origins in this area.

source : Catella