Marc Benchimol, a senior director at Crédit Lyonnais Private Equity, has become head of Mezzanis, a subsidiary focused exclusively on providing mezzanine finance for French private equity transactions.

At Mezzanis Benchimol will oversee a team of four investment professionals targeting transactions with an enterprise value between €50 and €500m ($55m and $551m). Mezzanis was established in June last year and Mezzanis fund, the subsidiary's first fund, is still in fundraising mode.