Credit Suisse has hired the former head of sponsors in Europe at Barclays as a managing director in its leveraged finance and sponsors group, at a time when private equity firms have been rushing to dispose of assets.

Matthew Grinnell will be responsible for a number of the bank's most important private equity relationships and will report to Mathew Cestar and Didier Denat, co-heads of the leveraged finance and sponsors group in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to a memo seen by Financial News.