Goldman Sachs’s head of leveraged finance for EMEA, Dominic Ashcroft, is set to depart the investment bank to join Blackstone in one of the most significant moves from Wall Street to private credit to date, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Ashcroft will take on the role of Head of European Private Credit Origination at Blackstone Credit and Insurance in London, according to sources familiar with the matter. He replaces Jurij Puth, who has left Blackstone after an 18-year tenure.
Ashcroft’s exit marks the latest in a series of senior leveraged finance executives making the transition to private credit. Last year, Goldman’s Luke Gillam, former sole head of EMEA credit finance capital markets, joined AlbaCore Capital, while Bank of America’s Murad Khaled moved to Apollo Global Management.
The trend underscores the growing challenge private capital firms pose to traditional banking in the corporate lending space. As market volatility drives banks to adopt a more cautious approach to risk, private credit lenders are capitalising on opportunities to structure large-scale deals.
In a sign of this shift, private credit firms are in advanced talks to arrange a €6.25bn ($6.7bn) loan for online classifieds giant Adevinta ASA, a transaction that, if completed, would rank among the largest private credit financings to date – potentially sidelining banks that had pitched to refinance the company’s debt.
While bank financing typically offers lower costs, private credit funds are proving more agile in volatile market conditions.
