Fair Oaks gets a new cornerstone investor
FAIR OAKS Income Fund, a Guernsey-based investment firm, said yesterday that secondaries investor Coller Capital had bought a 20 per cent stake in the fund from a previous cornerstone investor.
The London-based Coller has purchased the entire holding of 34,298,425 ordinary shares from alternative SME finance provider GLI Finance (Glif). Fair Oaks invests in collateralised loan obligations (CLOs) of predominantly US-originated loans. Coller has also signed a lock-in agreement to keep the shares on its books until 16 August 2016.
“We believe that [Coller’s] purchase validates the attractiveness of both the company’s differentiated approach to investing in CLOs and senior secured loans, as well as its structure, which provides for the distribution to shareholders of both income and realised capital,” said Miguel Ramos Fuentenebro, co-founder of Fair Oaks Capital.
Numis analyst Ewan Lovett-Turner believes both Fair Oaks and Glif will benefit from the move. “For Fair Oaks, it removes a potential overhang, and brings a leading secondary fund investor onto the shareholder register. For Glif, the sale completes the company’s change in strategy to focus on SME finance platforms,” he said.