LCM partners has closed the LCM Partners Credit Opportunities III strategy, with in excess of EUR2 billion in commitments across a mix of managed accounts and a commingled fund from pension funds and foundations in the US, Continental Europe and the UK.
“LCM Partners is incredibly proud to include some of the most prestigious institutional investors as clients following the close of the LCM Credit Opportunities III strategy. We are honoured to represent state retirement schemes, public and private sector workers and foundations. We take our responsibility to manage our clients’ assets prudently very seriously and it is this approach that has enabled us to deliver positive annual returns over a seventeen year period at an average IRR of 14.9 per cent (gross, unleveraged),” says Paul Burdell (pictured), chief executive officer, LCM Partners.
The LCM Partners Credit Opportunities III strategy uses a single investment platform, which enables all funds within the strategy to invest alongside one and other. The commingled fund comprises a EUR and USD sleeve and closed on 31 October 2016 with EUR865.5 million in commitments. Four managed accounts will also invest into the underlying investment platform with commitments ranging in size from EUR100 million to EUR500 million.
Since the launch of LCM Partners Credit Opportunities III, LCM has invested approximately EUR1 billion in transactions and has a current pipeline exceeding EUR1.5 billion of performing, rescheduled, and non-performing loans from a wide range of European countries across consumer and SME debt.
Adrian Cloake, chief investment officer at LCM Partners, says: “We are ahead of target for pace of deployment and returns achieved for our cornerstone investors since the launch of LCM Partners Credit Opportunities III. The final close of the strategy at over EUR2 billion means LCM Partners continues to hold significant firepower in what is shaping up to be the most active market for loan purchases that we have seen in the past 17 years of business.
“The ongoing implementation of Basel III across Europe means the amount of capital banks must hold will increase again on 1 January 2017. More emphasis on capital leads to more focus on reducing risk weighted assets and the quickest way for banks to achieve this is to sell transactions to managers such as LCM Partners who are able to buy the portfolios, but more importantly service the underlying customers.”
