Arranger (www.arranger.ch) is a small finance boutique initiated in 2005 by its self-employed partners, focusing on Financial Advisory, Wealth Management, Debt Structuring, Placement, Restructuring as well as Property Sale, Development and Restructuring.Regional scope reflects the experience of the partners mainly in Switzerland, southern Europe and Turkey.

Leading loan syndication for UBS in Switzerland, I was responsible for the syndication and sales of sovereign, corporate, project finance and leveraged loans in the primary market in the range of CHF 50-500 Mn. During that time, I pushed to a more international scope of placement, rising processes and documentation to the international standards of LMA. We have always reached our restrictive targeted net takes. This has been achieved even for cases such as the case of a single refinancing of two syndicated loans to a cross-over borrower allowing equal and better control by the lenders of the assets and cash flows. In situations which would have overstretched the normal free cash-flow determined debt capacity, easy to implement features such as structure, working capital repayment mechanisms and borrowing bases have been applied. Sales of par and distressed loans in the secondary market and hedging positions with credit derivatives have been initiated and closed even if they still played a minor role for illiquid names. None of the loans in which I have been involved in the structuring and syndication has caused losses.

I was responsible for the start-up, growth and investment financing of Berner Kantonalbank as well as for its distribution of collective pension schemes. I also developed credit-pricing and marketing tools for such products and coached the distribution teams. I have also been involved in few restructuring cases of industrial companies representing the Berner Kantonalbank, either to support their efforts with structures adequate for both sides, including subordinate facilities or in case of being a minority lender, assigning the share to a lender driving the restructuring.

In this Swiss mutual loan guarantee society, financing small local borderline borrowers I have been representing the Berner Kantonalbank as a member of the board of directors.

During the property crisis in the late nineties, Berner Kantonalbank had to separate non performing loans and their corresponding financing into Dezennium Finanz to purge both sides of the balance sheet within 10 years. Most of the loans were related to the financing of property developers. As one of the project managers, I took responsibility for a considerable portfolio of such loans, including most of those out of the home territory of the bank. This included many incomplete projects, ranging from undeveloped land to brownfield developments to hotels and all kind of residential and commercial properties. Common in workout, the process often faced obstructive obligors trying to force exoneration from personal responsibilities against the creditor’s aim to control the assets and their cash flows before repossession. As an example of such a collateral, I can mention an agricultural property on the outskirts of a medium sized Swiss town, which could not be repossessed by a bank, as the Law doesn’t allow non-farmers to own such land as long as a farmer is ready to buy it at an average price. I solved this developing the land zoning ordinance in co-operation with the authorities after a ruling legitimizing to increase value of collateral. The plot eventually allowed for 20 single family houses and a block of 9 apartments to be built, repossessed and well sold to an investor who is now marketing the units. Another case involved a 60’000 sqm. brownfield near the centre of another medium sized town with 40’000 lettable sqm. The strategy before repossession by the lenders syndicate included its parcelling, the documentation of each parcel, its valuation, marketing to tenants increasing income by 25 %, promoting single plots to local potential buyers, and pre-agreeing the sale to an investor.

My real estate experience has often been in relation to restructurings. The first project which I took charge of for Weder in Thun, was to co-ordinate the planning to obtain the missing permits of a touristic and residential project on more than 100’000 sqm. in southern Spain for one of the main Swiss developers. When this eventually collapsed, I sold the property for the liquidator. In another similar case, together with a legal team, we could force the unwinding of the acquisition under the responsibility of the transacting bank. For the development of a large commercial building on top of a part of the railway station for I.B.O. Immobiliengesellschaft Bahnhof Ost in Basle, I managed the commercial part of the project until construction start, focussing on its financial optimization. Managing the project for the development of a golf resort in southern Spain, I negotiated planning agreements, co-ordinated an acceptable master planning to obtain the zoning of former fallow land for approx 800 residential units in the mid-nineties. Eventually, in 2005, I sold the property well for the owners, which were not professional developers, before the market peaked.

I started my professional career as an assistant. Ten years later, I still have been invited by KPMG as a guest speaker for their clients on due diligence.