Bethany Knight has joined independent derivatives advisory firm Riverside Risk Advisors as a Vice President. Previously, Knight was a Vice President in the Equity-linked Origination team at Deutsche Bank, which was named IFR Structured Equity House-of-the-Year in 2016. During her six years at Deutsche Bank, Knight was involved in the origination and structuring of multi-billion dollar signature transactions, including Dish Network's convertible bonds and call spread, General Electric's accelerated share repurchase program, and Waha Capital's funded collar of its AerCap stake.
"Bethany was instrumental in helping many high profile companies through a number of complex equity-linked transactions. She is a great addition to the team," Joyce Frost, Co-Founder and Partner of Riverside, said. "Our equity derivatives advisory work has been a tremendous value-add to our clients and we are ready to expand this business. In her role as an independent advisor, I think our clients will certainly benefit from her depth of knowledge and experience."
Over the past several years, Riverside advised on the execution and termination of convertible bond call spreads and capped calls for companies, including Interactive Intelligence Group, Meadowbrook Insurance and Citrix Systems. Call spreads and capped calls, which are used by issuers to mitigate the dilutive effects of their convertible bonds, are highly complex, illiquid transactions. Riverside has helped save its clients millions of dollars in dealer transaction costs while working very closely with management to help facilitate the issuance process.
"Riverside was critical in helping Interactive Intelligence terminate our call spread transaction at great pricing. Terminating our debt upon being acquired was challenging and working with Riverside alleviated a part of that complexity and saved us money," Ashley Vukovits, former CFO of Interactive Intelligence, said.
Following the outcome of notable shareholder lawsuits, including the recent Volcano Corporation Stockholder Litigation, RBC Capital Markets LLC vs. Jervis and Zale Corporation Stockholder Litigation, boards of directors are under increasing pressure to fully identify and evaluate potential conflicts that may exist among their financial advisors, especially on change of control transactions.
"As an independent party with deep experience in derivative transactions, Riverside is in an excellent position to inform a board of the potential profit a dealer may realize upon the termination of a derivative upon a change of control, including equity derivatives, rates, FX or commodities. It's an important part of a board's diligence process in light of recent litigation developments," Steven Fink, of the Law Office of Steven J. Fink PLLC, said.
Riverside Risk Advisors is an independent derivatives advisory firm located in New York City. Riverside advises on hedging interest rate, foreign exchange, equity and commodity market risk. Formed in 2009, its clients include private equity, project finance and infrastructure, real estate, corporate, insurance and financial entities based and operating in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
