(Bloomberg) -- Ramzi Issa, a former senior banker at UBS Group AG best known for his role in pioneering debt-for-nature swaps, has set up his own credit fund as demand for such deals heats up.
Issa, who left his position as UBS’s head of global structured credit and sustainable credit products in October, told Bloomberg that the new firm — Enosis Capital — was launched in November. It currently has a team of about three people, Issa said.
In 2021, Issa — then at Credit Suisse — helped revamp debt-for-nature swap structures, which were once dominated by public finance, to bring in private investors. He was among a select group of bankers to take on a senior role at UBS after the bank acquired its troubled Zurich-based rival last year.
Issa’s departure from UBS coincided with the bank taking a reduced role in a debt swap that it had been working on for Barbados, Bloomberg reported earlier this month. Issa had been overseeing the deal, which would have been UBS’s first foray into that market.
Debt-for-nature swaps are designed to help countries refinance their obligations at better terms and allocate savings to environmental or social goals. After being dominated by Credit Suisse in its early days, the market has attracted an increasing number of banks drawn by the promise of attractive fees associated with the complex and bespoke financial structures.
“You don’t necessarily need to be in a bank to focus within this area,” Issa said. And having a boutique firm through which to arrange such deals “does introduce some flexibility,” he said. Enosis will focus on debt conversions, but also seek out deals in which it can help arrange and advise on a broader range of impact-focused transactions globally, he said.
Banks that have completed debt swaps in recent months include JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Standard Chartered Plc. Countries securing such deals of late are El Salvador, Barbados and Ecuador, whose government was advised by Issa in his new role at Enosis.
Issa said he wants Enosis to be “a little bit more focused on the impact side.” For that reason, he said he’s “looking to try to be more exclusive in this area and use some of the experience and knowledge that’s been developed.”
(Updates with link to Bank of America story after fifth paragraph.)
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