Fund Finance Friday has previously provided an overview of traditional umbrella subscription facilities and their pros and cons – please see Wes Misson’s excellent article published in April 2019. Those were simpler times. Over the two years since that article, we have seen more innovation in the market. As Wes noted at the time, these “complex but interesting creatures” continue to evolve.
As most in the loan market are by now aware, the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York issued a decision on February 16, 2021 In Re Citibank August 11, 2020 Wire Transfers that certain lenders were entitled to retain approximately $500 million in funds erroneously sent by the administrative agent under a credit facility to Revlon, Inc. The court’s decision came as a shock to many in the lending community. However, it is based on an interpretation of the “discharge for value” doctrine, and stands for the fact that payors are in the best position to avoid errors in payments and are the appropriate party to bear the risk of any associated losses.
The Fund Finance Association has been active in the last week, including soliciting nominations for its 2021 Industry Awards. The Julian Black Lifetime Contribution to the Industry Award, the Dee Dee Sklar Women in Fund Finance Award and the NextGen Member of the Year Award are familiar to the industry. Two new awards have been added this year: the Diversity in Fund Finance Award, which will recognize an individual’s contribution to furthering diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the fund finance industry, and the Annual Contribution to the Industry Award, which aims to recognize several individuals who have made outsized contributions in the past year.
Investec recently produced an annual secondaries report, and for those of us who enjoy well-presented data, it’s definitely worth a read!
Fitch hosted a webinar last week discussing Private Equity Collateralized Fund Obligations (“PE CFOs”). The webinar focused on the performance of PE CFO transactions through the COVID-driven downturn, market and regulatory developments for the sector, and the outlook for 2021.
The Cayman Islands has been added to the “Monitoring List” by the Financial Action Task Force, as of February 25, 2021.
Emma Wang of East West Bank was featured in a recent article discussing the trends and outlook for the fund finance market in the Asia-Pacific region. The article also included her perspectives on gender equality in private equity. The article is available here.
Fund Fanatics Scott Aleali and Jeff Maier interview Laurel Touby and Jenny Friedman of Supernode Ventures about a host of topics, including Bitcoin, Miami’s evolving tech scene and what’s good on Netflix (our vote is Cobra Kai). All of that and more here.
In this sixth installment of the new “Fund Finance” webinar series (hosted on February 25), Michael Mbayi, Wildgen’s Fund Finance expert, is joined by panelists for an in-depth discussion concerning the structuring and the negotiation of the credit agreement.
Brickfield Recruitment’s latest article on talent search and recruitment in the fund finance industry looks at the issue of relationship building and how hiring managers, candidates, HR and recruiters can work together effectively to secure the best possible outcome.