Kuwaiti Firm Bolsters Asset Management With Another Senior Hire

Sandra Kilhof

19 February 2014

The Kuwaiti bank has hired Orhan Osmansoy to head its $600 million distressed asset-management business, according to a Bloomberg report.

Osmansoy will lead the special situations asset-management business at Global, dealing with distressed assets and restructuring, sources told Bloomberg. He was formerly chief executive of Abu Dhabi-based investment manager and advisory firm The National Investor, having previously served as a managing partner at the London investment firm Dexter Capital Group.

The hire is one in a series of senior appointments set to bolster the brokerage, asset management and investment-banking businesses at the Kuwait City-based bank. In January the firm announced that it had appointed Michael Helou to head its investment-banking business, and in September 2013 Global named Raul Biancardi to lead its wealth and asset-management unit.

In 2009 Global reached an agreement to restructure $1.7 billion of debt, which resulted in the transfer of investment assets to a special purpose vehicle, which it manages for creditors. The bank’s special-situations arm is charged with managing the SPV and will offer advisory and management services for other companies undertaking restructuring or looking to exit distressed assets, the report said.

Global has recorded an annual loss every year since 2008, having made a 6 million Kuwaiti dinar ($22 million) profit for the first nine months of last year, compared with a loss of 36 million Kuwaiti dinar in the same period of 2012.