Alternative investment firm Värde Partners has held a final close of The Värde Dislocation Fund with more than USD1.6 billion of commitments. Raised entirely with no in-person meetings, 55 per cent of commitments to the fund come from new investors.
“The strong demand for this strategy from a diverse, global investor base underscores expectations for a deep credit cycle,” said president Jon Fox. “We took innovative steps to engage investors through virtual platforms and were able to exceed our target in just five months.”
The fund will invest in opportunities presented by the market dislocations and economic disruption following the pandemic. It has a global mandate to pursue a broad universe of mispriced, stressed, and distressed credit, according to the firm.
“We believe the profound impact of Covid-19 has marked the start of a major, connected cycle,” said George Hicks, co-founder and co-chief executive officer.
“Having established a deep expertise in credit over the past 27 years, we bring to bear our experience investing through many credit cycles to guide us as the crisis unfolds,” added Hicks.
Värde launched a USD1 billion dislocation fund earlier this year that was raised through a private banking platform, bringing the total capital Värde has raised for dislocation strategies to more than USD2.6 billion to date.
“The unparalleled speed and disruption to society and markets has caused fundamental damage to the global economy. The range of potential outcomes remains incredibly wide, and we expect varying degrees of impact around the world,” said Ilfryn Carstairs, co-chief executive officer and chief investment officer at Värde.
“Our platform is well-suited to the opportunity in front of us, with the ability to pivot to markets and geographies where we see the best relative value,” he added.
Värde has invested USD75 billion since inception, manages more than USD14 billion on behalf of a global investor base, and has offices in cities including Minneapolis, New York, London, and Singapore.
