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The fund finance markets have remained active and vibrant into May, building on a solid first quarter. Much of what the market forecasted as likely in the beginning of the year has been occurring in fact. While the markets are steady and there is not much by way of breaking news, here are a few of our recent observations.
ESG-focused investment funds raised a record amount last year – estimated at more than $50 billion in new investor money. This trend is expected to not only continue but accelerate over the next few years. Some commentators have even noted that eventually, there may be no distinction at all between traditional investing and ESG investing as the latter cements its standing as the new normal for our modern-day society.
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With a surge in asset-based lending to private equity funds since the start of the pandemic and a historic run of IPO fundraising, it is not surprising that we are increasingly seeing post-IPO shares being pledged as collateral in support of asset-based loans. While private equity funds often invest in companies with the goal of later taking those companies public, the occurrence of the initial public offering doesn’t necessarily lead to the immediate divestment of a fund’s investment in that company.
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I was so happy to see Conyers Dill & Pearman announce this week that Michael O’Connor has been elevated to Partner. I’m always happy to see fund finance professionals get promoted; for too long, it felt like those of us in fund finance were a little underappreciated compared to professionals in more long-standing and higher profile sectors like leveraged finance. But that is clearly changing: LinkedIn has been overflowing with fund finance promotion announcements over the last year, which is awesome. But Michael’s elevation, from my vantage point, is a little different. |
Private Debt Investor provided a May 2021 Talking Points report with Ryan Crowell and Yuriy Shterk of Allvue Systems. The conversation highlights that the strong performance and increased demand for Fund Finance products during the pandemic is continuing as the pandemic subsides.
New Private Markets published an article this week that highlighted the ESG-linked credit line to AlpInvest, a subsidiary of Carlyle. The article briefly outlines some of the KPIs included to measure the performance of the fund as well as some of the consequences of not meeting them.
Sarah Lobbardi of Avardi Partners provided the guest column in this month’s The Drawdown magazine. The column is on page 34, and the subscription-required magazine is available here.
Private Equity International published an article this week outlining the views of Ian Brown, the head of private markets at LGPS (one of the UK’s largest public pension funds).
Private Funds CFO this week reported on BC Partners bringing on Tom Glover to lead an NAV lending and pref equity build-out. This subscription-required article is accessible here.
Co-head of Crestline’s thriving fund liquidity solutions group, Dave Philipp was promoted to Partner this week. For more on the news, click here.
The Goldman Sachs Asset Management team in Dallas is hiring an analyst to join its Alternative Capital Markets & Strategy (ACMS) Fund Finance team.
The fund finance markets have remained active and vibrant into May, building on a solid first quarter. Much of what the market forecasted as likely in the beginning of the year has been occurring in fact. While the markets are steady and there is not much by way of breaking news, here are a few of our recent observations.