Epsilon, August 2021 – Fund Manager Series
Kane Baranow hosts Mick Wright-Smith and Paul Nagy from Epsilon Direct Lending to discuss their fund.
The webinar was held on Tuesday the 24th of August, to watch a recording please contact your adviser.
Mick Wright-Smith (Founding Partner)
Mick has 21 years capital markets experience in corporate lending in Australia, the UK and Europe. He was most recently Executive Director and National Head of Mid-market Leveraged Finance at CBA where he was responsible for the origination and execution of growth and event-driven middle market corporate financings across Australia including leveraged buyout and acquisition financings, growth capex funding, recapitalisations and refinancings. Mick was formerly a founding member of CBA’s Corporate Finance team and is directly responsible for assisting the growth of that team from two FTE at inception in 2009 with zero balance sheet, through to: a team of 25 FTE, a balance sheet of c. A$2.5bn, and a national presence.
Prior to joining CBA Corporate Finance in January 2009, Mick was a Director in CIT’s Leveraged Finance business. Mick joined CIT in London as an Associate Director in October 2006 and was initially focused on the origination and execution of senior leveraged loans, both as a MLA to mid-market UK private equity sponsors and also as a participant in large cap LBO debt syndicates across Europe. Mick was promoted to Director in January 2008 and relocated to Sydney where he established a new Australian Leveraged Finance business for CIT. Mick spent 2008 creating a local network of Australian market participants across private equity sponsors and financiers, and was responsible for selective trades in the secondary market in senior leveraged loans.
Prior to joining CIT, Mick was a Manager in the Barclays Leveraged Finance team in London. Mick spent 18 months in the mid-market team at Barclays, originating and executing on senior and subordinated leveraged loans as MLA to support UK private equity sponsors through LBO processes. During his time at Barclays (April 2005 – October 2006), Mick underwrote and successfully syndicated a number of mid-market leveraged senior and subordinated loans across Europe. During his time in London and prior to joining Barclays, Mick also spent 10 months (June 2004 – April 2005) in a contract role with Wachovia within its International Corporate Finance division as an Associate covering a portfolio of large cap investment grade loans.
Before completing his MBA at the University of Edinburgh (full time June 2003 – June 2004), Mick held a variety of roles (Analyst, Senior Associate, Originator) at Balmain NB over a four year period. Whilst at Balmain, Mick was focused on property lending and arranging senior and subordinated debt for passive property investments, and also large-scale construction projects. Before joining Balmain NB and during his time as a university student, Mick was the founder and principal of Green-a-Clean, providing office and factory cleaning services to the commercial sector and employing eight staff.
Mick has a Masters Business Administration from the University of Edinburgh, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance & Investment (FINSIA), and an Honours degree Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne.
Paul Nagy (Founding Partner)
Paul has 21 years capital markets experience in financing, private equity investment and corporate advisory in Australia, the UK, Europe and the Middle East. He was most recently a Director in CBA’s Corporate Finance team where he was responsible for the origination and execution of growth and event-driven middle market corporate financings across Australia including leveraged buyout and acquisition financings, growth capex funding, recapitalisations and refinancings.
Prior to joining CBA Corporate Finance in April 2014, Paul was an Investment Director in Wingate Group’s Private Equity business, providing expansion and buy-out capital to Australian middle-market companies. At the time of his departure, Paul led the Private Equity business and was responsible for sourcing, executing, managing and realising private equity investments. During this time, Paul held a board observer role with Learning Seat Pty Ltd (an eLearning business acquired by Wingate in a management buyout).
Prior to joining Wingate Group in March 2010, Paul spent twelve months as a consultant with McGrathNicol (February 2009 – February 2010) providing divestment advice and sell-side assistance to the Corporate Recovery team on various engagements. Paul also spent nine months with the Gandel Group (February 2008 – October 2008) where he jointly managed the Group’s direct, private equity investments, and six months with Babcock & Brown in the Infrastructure Group (June 2007 – November 2007) where he was responsible for the evaluation and execution of a variety of global greenfield and brownfield infrastructure investment opportunities.
Paul commenced his career with EY, and spent six and a half years in various roles in the Corporate Finance and Infrastructure Finance divisions (January 2001 – June 2007), beginning in the Melbourne Corporate Finance team where he undertook a variety of advisory engagements covering M&A, valuations, financial modelling and financial due diligence. He was seconded to the International Infrastructure Finance team in London for two years where he advised clients on acquiring and/or financing infrastructure assets in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.
Paul has an Honours degree in the Bachelor of Business (Banking & Finance) and a Bachelor of Business (Banking & Finance) degree from Monash University. He holds a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment, and is a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia.
