Two of Deutsche Bank’s most senior executives have set up a new fund management company.
Gad Caspy (pictured) and Elad Shraga’s Signal Capital Partners will have a real estate arm and a broader distressed debt function.
Shraga, Caspy’s former boss and mentor, left his position as Deutsche Bank’s head of structured finance in May. A month later, Caspy resigned as head of European commercial real estate at the bank, which lent £5bn against European commercial property last year.
Market sources said Signal has launched a £500m real estate fund, which Caspy will run. The firm is aiming to close the fund within a year and it is understood to be more than half way towards that target already.
The fund will invest predominantly in real estate debt across Europe. It will provide whole loans, mezzanine finance and preferred equity, but will also invest in credit opportunities such as small non-performing loan portfolios.
The business is seeking to set itself apart from other providers in the crowded financing market by investing only in small lots. Smaller opportunities often put off larger debt funds, and traditional banks usually distance themselves from the type of riskier lending that Signal will consider.
Caspy and Shraga have been joined by another former colleague, Amit Jain, who was a managing director and distressed debt specialist at Deutsche Bank. Jain will run Signal’s generalist credit-focused business, which will invest independently of the real estate arm.
The company has opened an office on Albemarle Street, W1.
The departures of Caspy and Shraga from Deutsche Bank came at a time of dramatic change for the organisation. In the same month, the bank’s two co-chief executives, Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain, resigned following protests over job cuts and a record fine for its involvement in Libor rigging.
A week later, Jonathan Pollack, the bank’s former global head of real estate, left to become chief investment officer at Blackstone Real Estate Debt Services. Caspy was subsequently replaced as head of European commercial real estate by former head of European origination Roman Kogan.
Signal declined to comment.
