ZCM forms new risk advisory group

Zurich Capital Markets (ZCM), the New York-based alternative asset management firm, has formed a new risk advisory unit in Australia, and appointed John Martin, formerly of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), as managing director of the group.

The new unit, called ZCM Risk and Value Advisory (ZRVA), will offer risk-based corporate advisory services for mergers and acquisitions, capital management programmes, debt financing and risk transfer, as well as offer valuation and analytic services such as derivatives pricing. Some of the group’s initial work will focus on the merger of Australia’s commodity trading operations, according to Martin.

Martin joins the group from PwC in Sydney, where he was responsible for the financial risk management practice in Australia and New Zealand. He has also had stints at Australian financial risk management firm Oakvale Capital Management, where he was responsible for its risk management division, and the Sydney Futures Exchange, where he was risk manager between 1991 and 1994.

He is joined at ZCM by Justin Myatt and Michael Polich, also formerly with PwC, who become senior vice-president and vice-president respectively.

ZCM is a unit of Switzerland’s Zurich Financial Services Group.