Sound Point Capital Management, a global alternative credit manager with over $45 billion in assets under management, partnered with Ninety One to support the completion of the Ninety One European Credit Opportunities Fund 1 and expand Sound Point’s European private credit offering. As part of the partnership, the three-person investment team responsible for the strategy will join Sound Point, which intends to grow its business in this space.
Chris Rust and Lei Lei join Sound Point as portfolio managers and co-heads of European secured lending, alongside Lachlan Viney, director and senior analyst. All three are based in London and join from Ninety One, where Rust and Lei co-led the firm’s European secured lending strategy. They will report to Russell Holliday, head of Europe.
The team will focus on directly originated, asset-backed lending to European borrowers outside the traditional sponsor channel, where bank retrenchment continues to drive demand for flexible, structured capital. The strategy builds on Sound Point’s U.S. capabilities across capital solutions, direct lending and specialty finance, adding asset-backed lending to its European private credit offering. During the transition, Sound Point will serve as sub-adviser to the European Credit Opportunities Fund 1, partnering with Ninety One to deliver the fund and its investments through to completion.
Sound Point’s European expansion is also supported by the recent appointment of Victoria Davies as managing director and head of Europe for global client solutions, strengthening the firm’s institutional relationships and client coverage across the region.
“Chris and Lei bring exactly the disciplined, downside-focused underwriting we look for as we grow our European platform,” Stephen Ketchum, founder and managing partner of Sound Point, said. “It’s a segment of the market we think is substantially underserved, and one where we believe we can deliver significant value for our investors.”
Holliday added, “Chris and Lei have spent their careers underwriting complex European credit through multiple cycles, and they bring a rare combination of deep origination relationships and structuring discipline. European asset-backed lending outside the sponsor channel is one of the most attractive and difficult to access parts of the market today, and a natural complement to our existing capabilities.”
Rust has 26 years of experience in European and U.S. opportunistic and distressed credit, private equity, and M&A advisory. Prior to Ninety One, he founded Sterndale Capital Partners and was a managing director at Oak Hill Advisors, where he was responsible for European opportunistic and distressed credit investments and sat on the investment committee of the firm’s strategic credit fund. Prior to Oak Hill Advisors, Rust was a senior investment analyst at Värde Partners, where he helped build the firm’s European distressed credit business.
Lei has 23 years of experience in European performing, opportunistic and distressed credit and M&A advisory. Prior to Ninety One, he was a portfolio manager and managing director at Oak Hill Advisors, where he helped build the firm’s European credit business and was a member of the strategic credit fund investment committee.
“We were looking for a platform with meaningful scale in credit, genuine structuring capabilities and the conviction to fully support a European asset-backed strategy,” Rust and Lei said in a joint statement. “Sound Point offers that combination, along with a partnership culture that puts investors’ interests first. We are excited to build this business with the breadth and resources of a $45 billion platform behind us.”
Magellan Advisory Partners served as advisor to the team.
