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Preqin’s Quarterly Update: Hedge Funds, Q1 2015 analyses the latest industry data and identifies which groups found success over the last three months.
Funds of Funds
In 2014, the fund of funds sector accumulated assets for the first time since 2011, growing by USD33bn to reach USD819bn in assets across the entire industry. This net growth has continued into 2015, with the sector adding USD8bn in the first quarter of 2015.
Funds of funds have also had a strong start to the year in terms of performance, adding 3.02 per cent over Q1, higher than the Preqin All-Strategies Hedge Fund benchmark,
Brabant Development Agency Capital (BOM Capital) has chosen Investran, SunGard’s integrated private equity solution, to help enhance data and investment transparency across front- and back-office stakeholders and processes.
BOM Capital invests risk capital in start-up, growing and innovative companies in Brabant through long-term equity capital and fund-to-fund investments. BOM Capital will use SunGard’s Investran accounting, deal flow, relationship management, data exchange, and analytics and reporting capabilities to help increase process and operational efficiencies across its finance, compliance, administration, and investment management teams.
“We were seeking a single system to provide data transparency of investments and processes across the portfolio lifecycle
A fund managed by Ares Management’s commercial finance platform is to acquire the asset-based lending portfolio of First Capital Holdings, a commercial finance company that provides asset-based loans and factoring to small and middle-market companies.
First Capital is a portfolio company of HIG Capital. The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter, subject to customary closing conditions. The fund intends to fund the acquisition with a combination of debt and equity.
With this transaction, the Ares Commercial Finance platform, which is part of the firm’s Direct Lending Group, will have approximately USD700 million of loan commitments. The Ares
Harris Williams & Co has advised Driven Brands, a portfolio company of Harvest Partners, to affiliates of Roark Capital Group (Roark).
Through its two iconic brands, Maaco and Meineke, Driven Brands is one of the largest franchise platforms in the automotive aftermarket services sector. The transaction was led by Joe Conner, Jason Bass and Jershon Jones of Harris Williams & Co.’s Transportation and Logistics (T&L) Group and Chris Williams and Jonathan Meredith of the firm’s Richmond office.
“Driven Brands’ best-in-class management team has built an exceptional franchising platform that is highly regarded across the industry,” says Joe Conner, a managing
Contego Medical has completed a USD5.6 million Series B financing round led by Hatteras Venture Partners, an early stage venture firm with a focus on medical devices, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics and related opportunities in human medicine.
The round also included Mountain Group Partners, Lookout Capital and Medical Mutual.
"Contego Medical's portfolio of angioplasty balloons and stents embodying the Integrated Embolic Protection filter platform represents a breakthrough technology, which we believe will help endovascular interventionalists reduce the risk of stroke and other procedural complications," says Doug Reed MD, General Partner of Hatteras Venture Partners. Doug Reed will be joining Contego Medical as
Lateral Investment Management has formed a strategic partnership with The Leo Group, a New Jersey-based wealth management firm serving family offices, institutions and endowments.
As part of the partnership, Lateral will advise The Leo Group on a private debt portfolio of USD55 million. Lateral’s principals, Kenneth Masters and Richard de Silva, will act as co-portfolio managers of the portfolio.
“Lateral delivers a high-yield private debt product which is differentiated in today’s low-rate environment,” says Matthew Allain, CEO of Leo Group, which has reported assets under management of USD1.3 billion. “Lateral’s principals have a great track record of creating value for
Bamboo Finance has held the first close at USD31 million of its second financial inclusion focused fund with investments from Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA-CREF) and AXA-IM.
The Bamboo Financial Inclusion Fund II will make equity investments in the capital of banks and financial services companies targeting microenterprises, SMEs, the low and lower middle income segments as well as mobile money operators, correspondent banking businesses in growth markets where there remains significant exclusion from formal financial services globally in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.
Over the last seven years Bamboo Finance has built one
Ogier Jersey has acted as Jersey legal adviser for Intermediate Capital Group on the establishment of its tenth Jersey fund, ICG Europe Fund VI, which has held its first close having raised EUR2.5 billion to date.
This includes a contribution from ICG’s balance sheet of EUR500 million, along with EUR2 billion of third party subscriptions. Further closes are anticipated in the coming months, towards the EUR3 billion hard cap. The predecessor fund, ICG European Fund V, was closed in December 2012 at its hard cap of EUR2.5 billion, also including a subscription of EUR500 million from ICG’s balance sheet.
Niamh
Preqin’s latest analysis of the risk/return profile of major private equity and private debt fund strategies has shown that direct lending funds have been providing investors with superior returns given their level of risk.
These funds, which have increased in prominence since the fallout of the global financial crisis and the reduction in bank lending, are returning 11.4 per cent on average annually. This is only surpassed by distressed debt funds over the same period (vintage 2002-2012), which are returning 12.6 per cent. When looking at the disparity of returns, direct lending funds have one of the lowest standard deviations
KKR has held the final closing of KKR Lending Partners II, a USD1.34 billion fund focused primarily on privately-originated senior loans. KKRLP II is the successor fund to KKR Lending Partners I which exited its investment period in December 2014.
The Fund, for which KKR began soliciting third party capital in 2014, received strong backing from a diverse group of new and existing investors, including public pensions, insurance companies, private banking platforms, family offices and individual investors.
Erik Falk, Co-Portfolio Manager of the Fund, says: “We are very pleased that we were able to attract a nice mix of new
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