Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest private-equity firm, announced Tuesday that the former head of head of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s Spanish and Portuguese businesses, Claudio Boada, will become their senior adviser.
Boada has been president of the Association of Businessmen for the past eight years and currently chairs Abantia TICSA, Atlas Capital and Private Equity Holcim Spain.
He is also a member of the European Advisory Board of HSBC and has extensive financial experience after passing through Banco Bilbao, Dillon Read, Progress Bank and Lehman Brothers, where he was president until 2004.
"Given the need in Spain to recapitalize the banking sector, we believe that Boada will be useful to establish relationships and transactions between banks Blackstone and Spanish, "said Chad Pike, vice-chairman of the European business and partner of Blackstone in a statement.
Buyout firms are seeing investment opportunities in Spain just as the country became the euro region’s fourth nation to seek European Union assistance since the start of the debt crisis with a request of as much as 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to recapitalize its banks.
They are looking to buy assets at a discount from Spanish lenders willing to sell real estate loans and property to boost regulatory capital.