Women in Fund Finance is a sub-committee of the Fund Finance Association focusing on increasing the engagement, recognition and promotion of women leaders in the alternative investment fund finance industry. In this ‘Macro Economic Round-Up’, the European WFF Committee has reached out to market leaders to share their views on certain current affairs which are bound to have an impact on the macro-economic in the near future, and by way of default, which will also shape the fund finance market as we head into the fourth quarter of 2024.
The market for financing pools of interests in private equity funds and private credit funds continues to sizzle, with new lenders joining the market and competition on pricing leading to a tightening of spreads for the most sought after deals. We are regularly having conversations with business principals, risk officers and internal lawyers at new and existing lenders looking to better understand this market. How to underwrite secondaries is a particular focus for new lenders, and is a topic we covered at yesterday’s Fund Finance Association University 2.0.
The purpose of this article is to unpack the basic building blocks of what constitutes a NAV Loan to make sure that market participants have a basic understanding of what is in a NAV Loan and their key negotiated issues. As noted in prior articles, and as discussed in various panels at Fund Finance industry events, what constitutes a NAV financing transaction often means different things to different people. A fairly broad description that we have used previously is that a NAV financing transaction is primarily a loan to a private equity ("PE") fund where the value of the investment assets of the PE fund provide support for the borrower’s loan obligations. While even this broad description doesn’t capture everything that bankers and lawyers in the industry think of when they hear NAV Loan, it’s sufficiently broad for purposes of this article.
The countdown to the 2024 Cadwalader Finance Forum is on and we are excited to welcome David Golub, President of Golub Capital, as our keynote speaker!