Appleby recently published an overview of emerging trends discussed during the Fund Finance Association’s Virtual Symposium with regard to the European, Asian and global fund finance markets.
Mourant shares top take-aways from the Fund Finance Association's 2020 Virtual Fund Finance Symposium, which featured panels from across the globe to discuss market trends with a focus on European, Asia-Pacific and global perspectives.
Brickfield Recruitment has posted an article on its website discussing the state of the fund finance market in 2020 from a recruitment perspective. The article covers the global perspective and looks at trends in the U.S., UK, Europe and Asia as well as anticipating 2021.
Tune in to the fifth session of Wildgen’s Fund Finance Webinar Series hosted by Michael Mbayi. Michael is joined by industry leaders Richard Braham (Commonwealth Bank of Australia), Sarah Elliot (National Australia Bank Limited), Nick Mitra (Natixis), and Julie Thick (J.P. Morgan) as they discuss several market perspectives for 2021, including for the U.S., Europe and Australia.
The Fund Finance Association has announced the first edition of its European FFA University Program. The full-day event is scheduled for Thursday, February 4, 2021, from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. London time. Similar to its U.S. counterpart, the European program sessions will be designed for fund sponsor treasury teams, bankers and lawyers looking for an in-depth training opportunity. Registration information, event pricing and the detailed agenda will be forthcoming. Save the date!
The Drawdown has published an interview with Doug Cruikshank, the head of fund financing and Hark Capital at Aberdeen Standard Investments. The Drawdown editor Alice Murray's discussion with Cruikshank highlights the liquidity challenges faced by private equity firms in 2020, focusing in particular on the evolution of the NAV facilities market.
In its most recent "Offshore Business Update," Appleby published an article that looks at the common local law issues that arise in NAV financings and provides a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction guide covering Bermuda, BVI, Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Jersey.
While most banks offer fund finance options through subscription credit facilities, which are primarily geared toward the earlier stages of a fund’s term, there are now a growing number of lenders offering a different kind of finance option for later in a fund’s life in the form of preferred equity or NAV finance called "portfolio finance."
Cassandra Best of Cadwalader’s fund finance team in New York has been named to the New York Metro Edition of Super Lawyers as a “Rising Star” based on her excellent work for her lender clients, her commitment to diversity and inclusion, and her contributions to the Fund Finance Association’s Next Gen Network.
Congratulations, Cassandra!
In 2019, the U.S. legal cannabis industry generated an estimated $13.2 billion in sales across all medical and adult-use state markets, according to cannabis analytics firm New Frontier Data. Arcview has estimated that cannabis sales are expected to climb to $46.8 billion by 2025. This staggering growth is clearly attractive to many investment funds who are eager to get in on the action and many law firms, including Cadwalader, have active cannabis finance advisory practices. Despite broad investment interest, cannabis remains illegal at the federal level, meaning that many investment funds and banks are hesitant to partake for fear of violating anti-money laundering laws. Reform does appear to be coming: as of November 2020, cannabis is legal in 35 states and in D.C. for medical and/or recreational purposes, while Canada fully legalized marijuana in 2018, and Mexico looks to follow suit. This week, we invited Doug Fischer, General Counsel of Greenlane (NASDAQ: GNLN), (arguably) the first ancillary cannabis business to do an IPO on a major U.S. exchange, to discuss this booming industry and some of the associated risks.