Houlihan Lokey Adds HSBC Bankers for Illiquid Europe Assets

(Bloomberg) -- Houlihan Lokey Inc., the boutique bank that focuses on restructuring and had its initial public offering last year, hired HSBC Holdings Plc's Zaman Khan and Christian Scharf as managing directors to help clients in the financial industry deal with illiquid financial assets.

Khan and Scharf will be based in London and report to Jeff Hammer and Paul Sanabria, the global co-heads of the illiquid financial assets division, the Los Angeles-based firm said in a statement Wednesday. Khan was HSBC's head of special situations and focused on bank deleveraging. Scharf was HSBC's head of debt capital markets for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, according to the statement.

The tighter oversight that is pressuring European lenders has provided opportunity for U.S. boutiques, both to add bankers and win business with firms on the continent seeking to shore up capital. Khan and Scharf previously helped clients on transactions tied to non-performing loans from Greek banks.

“Christian and Zam bring meaningful financial-institution relationships, extensive structured-transaction experience, and innovative solutions to our IFA practice,” Sanabria said in the statement. “They are uniquely positioned, particularly with respect to their buy-side experience and approach, to assist European banks in optimizing their capital structures and provide regulatory relief where possible, especially as capital requirements tighten.”

Houlihan Lokey also announced the hiring of HSBC's Thomas Chambers to the London office as an associate in the division. The IFA practice now has a staff of 18.

Jonny Blostone, a spokesman for London-based HSBC, declined to comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Agnel Philip in New York at aphilip19@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dan Kraut at dkraut2@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill