Special situations credit investor Arbitrium Capital Partners has appointed a new chairman after the death of Ray Horsburgh.
The steel industry stalwart, who passed away after a fall in Romania in August, had chaired Arbitrium’s board since its founding two years ago.
He will be replaced by Harvey Kalman, who set up Equity Trustees’ corporate trustee business and grew it to oversee more than $100 billion in assets in 11 years. Kalman left Equity Trustees last year, and has shifted to a non-executive director career including at Raiz, MSC Trustees and Arbitrium.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Ray. He was a great leader and a great mentor to me. Arbitrium is fortunate to have had Ray as our first chairman of the board,” Co-founder Mukhtader Mohammed said.
“I am excited to have Harvey become our next chairman. He brings strong financial acumen and necessary governance skills to chair the board of Arbitrium,” he said.
Mohammed, best known in restructuring circles for his work at Deloitte on Virgin Australia’s administration, set up Arbitrium to invest in special situations credit targeting spicier end of the market at 10 to 13 per cent annualised returns on loans or 17 to 20 per cent after adding enrichments like warrants and milestone payments.
The boutique has raised $230 million so far from high-net-worth types, investing on a deal-by-deal basis. It has been raising $300 million for a new closed-ended fund to stocks up on dry powder for debt opportunities created by inflation.
Last year, it provided financing for Drillman Australia’s purchase of Swedish multinational engineering outfit Sandvik’s global drill manufacturing business.