UBS Said to Hire Ex-Goldman Trader Milton for Distressed

UBS AG (UBS), Switzerland’s largest bank, hired former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) trader Timothy Milton for its distressed credit business.

Milton started at UBS in New York last week, according to three people familiar with the hire, who declined to be identified because the appointment hasn’t been announced publicly. He reports to Jeff Teach, global head of distressed debt, special situations and loan trading, the people said. Christiaan Brakman, a UBS spokesman, confirmed the hire.

UBS hired Mike Weir as a loan trader last year. He previously ran the loan trading desk at Citadel Securities, a unit of Ken Griffin’s Citadel LLC. UBS moved its credit sales and trading team to New York from Stamford, Connecticut in December.

There have been $175.1 billion of leveraged loans, those rated below BBB- by Standard & Poor’s (MHP) and less than Baa3 at Moody’s Investors Service (MCO), arranged in the U.S. this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. UBS has arranged $4 billion, the data show.

Loan prices have risen 2.7 cents on the dollar this year, as measured by the S&P/LSTA U.S. Leveraged Loan 100 Index. They reached a high in the first quarter of 93.84 cents March 28.

Goldman Sachs recently named Bryan Mix global head of loan trading, and Jonathan Meltzer and John Shaffer, co-heads of New York credit sales. The changes came after the bank began restricting people working in the loan sales and trading business from receiving private information, such as corporate financial projections.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kristen Haunss in New York at khaunss@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Faris Khan at fkhan33@bloomberg.net