At the bottom of the stack in investment fund structures, there are generally “real” assets—things like equity interests in portfolio companies, mortgage loans, commercial receivables, maybe even bricks and mortar. Fund finance transactions, though, are by design crafted to be at several levels removed from such underlying assets. With such ultimate assets remote from the transaction, it may seem to fund finance practitioners that concerns about changes in the Uniform Commercial Code relating to the nature of collateral assets are just as remote.
We have said it before – the “credit cornerstone” of a subscription credit facility is the limited partnership agreement – it is the primary contract, together with any side letters, governing the relationship between a fund and its investors. But does the LPA really mean anything if there are no investors subscribed to the fund? Enter the LPA’s most important sidekick, the subscription agreement.
Yesterday, the Institutional Limited Partners Association issued guidance for Limited Partners and General Partners around the use of Net Asset Value based financing facilities by private equity funds. The Guidance is intended to provide general parameters for transparency and dialogue between Limited Partners and General Partners around the use of NAV-based facilities.
Cadwalader was delighted to co-sponsor this week's second annual golf outing at Dyker Beach Golf Course in Brooklyn, New York. The event was conceived of, planned and orchestrated by Kristin Castellanos, head of fund finance at TriState Capital Bank, and was sponsored by TriState Capital, Assured Guaranty, Cadwalader and Women in Fund Finance.
Master-series funds are definitely not on our desks on a daily basis; however, they do arise from time to time, and certainly as transactions are becoming more and more bespoke. Care should be taken by lenders when lending to these types of funds and in particular when putting the relevant loan documentation (including the security package) in place. Before delving into that, we thought it would be helpful to first take a look at what master-series funds are and why they are employed.