Madison Capital Funding, a lending unit of the insurance giant New York Life, has been on a roll. It attracted a new business partner in the private equity giant Apollo Global Management. The trade publication Mergers & Acquisitions named it the 2012 lender of the year.
Yet this week, New York Life suspended Madison Capital’s chief executive, Trevor J. Clark, and another one of its senior executives, Christopher G. Williams, over violations in company policies, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The two have been suspended with pay, these people said, for failing to disclose to New York Life certain personal investments and business interests that they were doing outside the company.These people asked to remain anonymous to discuss personnel issues.
Mr. Clark and Mr. Williams did not return telephone calls and e-mails. A spokesman for New York Life, William H. Werfelman, said the company was not in a position to comment at this time.
Madison Capital, which is based in Chicago, is a leader in the lucrative but little known business called middle-market lending, providing financing to medium-size companies that are, in many cases, owned by private equity firms. The company has about $6 billion in assets under management, the majority of which is from New York Life.
Other major players in the middle-market lending business include GE Capital, Golub Capital and Ares Capital.
Last April, Apollo Investment Corporation, a publicly traded lender, announced that it had become the anchor investor in a loan vehicle management by Madison. Apollo Global Management, a separate public company run by the billionaire financier Leon Black, also announced a new business relationship with the lender.
“We are very pleased that we are working with Madison Capital, which is a highly respected and leading middle market loan originator with an outstanding track record,†said Marc Rowan, a senior managing director at Apollo.
