By Pierre Paulden and Kristen Haunss Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Denis Coleman, the co-head of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s U.S. leveraged finance business, is being transferred to Europe to oversee bank loans, high-yield capital markets and restructuring. Coleman, who joined Goldman Sachs in 1996 and became a partner in 2008, will relocate Dec. 1 to London as head of European credit finance, according to a person familiar with the situation. He will run leveraged finance, including high-yield, high-risk syndicates, said the person, who declined to be identified because the firm didn’t make the announcement public. Leveraged takeovers in the U.S. and Europe are picking up, along with debt and equity markets, following a two-year drought caused by the global credit crisis. Sales of junk-rated debt in Europe have risen to 24.4 billion euros ($36.1 billion), from 5.5 billion euros ($8.1 billion), a more than four-fold jump from the same period in 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael DuVally and Coleman, both in New York, declined to comment. Doug Henderson, currently the head of European credit finance, will become chairman of the division. High-yield, high-risk debt is rated below Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Service and BBB- by Standard & Poor’s. Craig Packer will become sole head of U.S. leveraged finance with the move, the person said. Lending to fund takeovers began to slow in July 2007, when bankers couldn’t find investors for the credit they provided in New York-based KKR & Co.’s 11.1 billion pound ($18.3 billion) purchase of British drugstore chain Alliance Boots Ltd. To contact the reporters on this story: Pierre Paulden in New York at ppaulden@bloomberg.net; Kristen Haunss in New York at khaunss@bloomberg.net

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