Sound Point Capital Management has hired Ninety One's three-person European secured lending team as part of a partnership with the South African asset manager, adding directly originated asset-backed lending to its European private credit platform.

Chris Rust and Lei Lei join Sound Point as portfolio managers and co-heads of European secured lending, having co-led the strategy at Ninety One. Both previously worked at Oak Hill Advisors and have more than two decades of experience in European opportunistic and distressed credit and M&A advisory. Lachlan Viney joins as director and senior analyst. All three are based in London and report to Russell Holliday, head of Europe.

Under the partnership, Sound Point will act as sub-adviser to the Ninety One European Credit Opportunities Fund 1 during the transition, working with Ninety One to deliver the fund and its investments through to completion. Sound Point, which manages over $45bn, said it intends to grow the business.

The team will lend to European borrowers outside the traditional sponsor channel, where Sound Point said bank retrenchment continues to drive demand for flexible, structured capital. "European asset-backed lending outside the sponsor channel is one of the most attractive and difficult to access parts of the market today, and a natural complement to our existing capabilities," Holliday said.

The move is the latest example of a US credit manager buying European origination capability through a team lift rather than building it. For Ninety One, the arrangement offers continuity for investors in an existing fund while handing the strategy to a larger credit platform. For borrowers, it adds another lender to the non-sponsored, asset-backed segment, which Holliday described as one of the most difficult parts of the market to access.