CDC Group plc, the UK’s development finance institution, has made a series of new appointments designed to strengthen its investment teams and enable the company to start to implement its new strategy.
Holger Rothenbusch has been appointed as Managing Director of the new Debt and Structured Finance Team and starts on 3rd September. Holger rejoins CDC having previously worked at DEG, the German development finance institution. At DEG, Holger was Senior Vice President Asia & Europe, responsible for a portfolio of equity, debt and mezzanine investments of more than EUR2.5bn. Prior to DEG he worked at CDC as Head of Financial Institutions between 1998 and 2004. Holger replaces Hywel Rees-Jones, who is stepping down from his full time role as Managing Director, but will remain at CDC in a part time capacity
As part of its new strategy, CDC is building a direct equity investment team which is preparing to provide equity capital directly to support the growth of businesses, especially in the more challenging regions of Africa and South Asia. The team, which is led by Mark Pay, has made three new appointments. They are:
Ross Coul who joins as Investment Manager, from Sovereign Capital in London
Rohit Anand who joins as Investment Executive, from IDFC Private Equity in Mumbai, where he focused on growth capital investments in infrastructure
Maheep Jain who joins as Investment Executive, with a background in corporate finance from Clean World Capital
While CDC continues to develop its new capacity to provide equity and debt capital directly to businesses, financial institutions and infrastructure projects, it is also strengthening its existing fund investment teams. Investing in private equity funds remains a core part of CDC’s new strategy and a number of new appointments have been made to strengthen the Africa and Asia funds teams.
Marie Kyle joined the Africa funds team as an Investment Executive. Marie has worked with Bain and the Clinton Foundation and has just completed an MBA from Harvard Business School.
After almost six years of working for CDC, Anubha Shrivastava, the former Managing Director, Asia has decided to move on to pursue other opportunities. A replacement is being sought but the Asia funds team has been strengthened by the appointment of Hiti Singh and the promotion of Clarisa De Franco, who will both take the role of Portfolio Director.
Diana Noble, Chief Executive, CDC Group, says: “I am extremely positive about all our hires, the skills and additional capacity that they bring to us and believe that they will contribute to an exciting future for CDC. CDC will continue to grow and develop our investment teams as we look to build our portfolio of funds, equity and debt across Africa and South Asia, to support the building of businesses and creation of jobs.
“Although there is still more to do, I am happy with our progress on recruitment so far. We have been able to attract investment professionals of the highest calibre who will make a real difference to CDC and the businesses and funds in which we invest.”
