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Apollo Hires Nomura Executive Suspended in Wake of Archegos

Apollo Hires Nomura Trader Suspended in Wake of Archegos Losses

Apollo Global Management Inc. has hired a senior executive from Nomura Holdings Inc. who was among the officials suspended when the Japanese bank lost billions of dollars on the collapse of Archegos Capital Management earlier this year. 

Michael Caperonis has joined Apollo’s credit business as a partner, according to Erin Clark, a spokeswoman for the New York-based firm. As Nomura’s global co-head of equities and head of credit trading Americas, he was one of a group of senior officials censured by the lender in April as its losses from trades with Archegos soared to $2.9 billion, Bloomberg reported at the time.

The collapse of Archegos is still being felt across Wall Street six months after it imploded and inflicted more than $10 billion of losses on a small group of banks led by Credit Suisse Group AG and Nomura. The debacle has shaken the business of lending to hedge funds, led to a wave of scrutiny from U.S. and U.K. regulators, and prompted a series of executive departures. 

Aoife Reynolds, a Nomura spokeswoman in London, declined to comment. Caperonis declined to comment.

Caperonis, a Wall Street veteran who joined Nomura in 2015, left the bank voluntarily, according to people familiar with the matter. The lender hasn’t disclosed any disciplinary events concerning him, according to U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority data.

At Apollo, Caperonis will focus on convertible bonds, equity derivatives and “capital structure arbitrage,” trades that seek to profit from pricing differences in related securities, Clark said in an email. The firm, which had about $472 billion of assets under management at the end of June, has been bolstering its credit team this year, hiring John Cortese from Barclays Plc to lead credit trading along with Earl Hunt from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Joseph Jackson from Elliott Management Corp. 

Caperonis’ suspension was among the measures that Nomura took in the aftermath of the Archegos losses, including hiring a team of external lawyers to probe the affair and replacing the global head of credit risk.

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