Ogier’s new Luxembourg fund finance partner sees end-of-year thaw

Law firm Ogier announced it has hired former NautaDutilh partner and fund finance specialist Jad Nader to its Luxembourg-based banking and finance team. Nader joined at the beginning of August, having moved from New York for the role.

Nader, who also specializes in cross-border lending and debt restructuring, ran the Luxembourg desk at NautaDutilh, where he was a partner for three years.

Speaking to Private Funds CFO, Nader said that, after a slowdown in activity from April through the summer, “we should expect quite a busy year-end.” Clients, other lawyers and market players are sanguine on the prospects for fund finance, he said.

Nader pointed to NAV lending activity in particular – of the kind secured against large portfolios of diverse assets — as a significant driver of activity recently. “We’ve had a resurgence of NAV deals,” he said. “Dealflow has increased very substantially…Everyone needs liquidity,” he added, saying deals in the pipeline are gradually closing, with some new deals coming in too.