ABN AMRO appoints two to leveraged finance team

In a move to ramp up its leveraged finance business across Asia and Europe, ABN AMRO has appointed Chi Chi Chain as head of leveraged finance in Asia and Inigo Heredia as head of leveraged finance in Spain. Both appointments are effective immediately.

Chain, who will be based in Hong Kong, was previously a director with ABN AMRO in Amsterdam. She has five years of leveraged finance experience at ABN AMRO in Europe and brings a strong understanding of the leveraged finance market to her new role. Chain will report locally to Geoffrey Rydon, head of structured lending in Asia, and globally to James Courtenay, global head of leveraged finance.

Inigo Heredia will be based in Madrid and joins from SociTtT GTnTrale where he worked in leveraged finance for several years. Heredia will provide ABN AMRO with local leveraged finance expertise to compliment the large underwriting and distribution teams already in place in London and Amsterdam.

ôThe leveraged finance market has seen rapid growth in Europe in recent years, with leveraged loan volumes expected to rise to record levels of issuance again in 2007,ö says Courtenay. ôMany of our leading financial sponsor clients have now established businesses in Asia, where we expect there to be rapid growth of buyout opportunities in 2007.ö