Värde Partners, a global alternative investment firm specializing in credit and credit-related assets, launched its fund finance platform.
Building on Värde’s broader asset-based finance strategy, the platform is an extension of Värde’s capabilities designed to address the increased demand for subscription lines and other fund finance-related products. The firm’s fund finance strategy aims to support bank origination through natural distribution channels in addition to meeting borrower demands for more structured financing solutions, both of which will expand lending capacity to the market.
Värde launched its fund finance platform with $300 million of strategic equity capital from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, through subsidiaries of CPPIB Credit Investments, in addition to other Värde-dedicated capital. The platform has already closed a forward flow agreement with a large global bank to bolster the bank’s subline origination capacity.
“We deeply appreciate the support and collaboration of our longstanding partners as we developed the infrastructure to expand this offering to the broader market,” Brad Bauer, managing partner and CEO of Värde, said. “The launch of this platform enables us to expand our relationships with bank partners while creating exposure to what we believe to be an attractive investment opportunity.”
“We see the rising demand for fund finance products as creating a durable, highly scalable opportunity as private capital and, therefore, fund financing needs continue to grow,” Missy Dolski, global head of fund finance and capital markets at Värde, said. “The emergence of non-traditional long-term capital providers into the over $1 trillion subline lending market is a transformative development in a space that has not had a significant capital markets solution which we believe ultimately benefits underlying borrowers.”
“As demand for fund financing grows, we view subline lending markets as a compelling opportunity for investors like CPP Investments with long-term capital available for deployment,” David Colla, managing director, head of capital solutions group at CPP Investments, said. “This transaction is an important and strategic step in building a strong partnership with Värde, who brings expertise in this space, and we look forward to working with them to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for the benefit of CPP contributors and beneficiaries.”
