Specialist fixed income manager BlueBay Asset Management LLP has appointed Sid Chhabra to the newly created role of head of structured credit and collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). Based in London, Chhabra will report to Mark Dowding and Stephen Thariyan, co-heads of developed markets, and will lead the initiative to establish and manage a new range of BlueBay global structured credit and asset-backed securities (ABS) strategies.

This new capability will be used in existing multi-asset credit portfolios, as well as in new, innovative stand-alone traditional and alternative strategies. Launches are set to start towards the end of the year and in 2019.

Speaking about Chhabra's appointment and the new capability, Erich Gerth, CEO of BlueBay, said, "Sid will strengthen our existing leveraged finance proposition and, given the range of strategies we plan to launch, will reinforce our position as a firm that sits at the convergence point of alternative and traditional asset managers. Sid has extensive experience in securitized assets, both as an investor and a structurer, and is highly regarded in the industry. Therefore, he is ideally positioned to grow BlueBay's business in this area."

As part of the developed markets team, Chhabra will work with colleagues in leveraged finance, using extensive global credit analyst resources, in a group which has invested in global leveraged loans for the past 15 years. BlueBay plans to appoint other experienced individuals to support Chhabra in building out this capability.

Chhabra has over 15 years of structured credit and CLO experience. Most recently he spent seven years as a London based managing director, responsible for structured credit and CLOs at Anchorage Capital Europe. Prior to this, Chhabra was part of the structured credit/collateralized debt obligation (CDO) group, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), at JPMorgan, where he was involved in structuring, originating and investing in structured credit products.