Golding raises 200 million euros for private debt fund for SMEs

Munich — Strong signal in the COVID 19 crisis: Golding raises almost 200 million euros from private debt funds for medium-sized compa­nies. The COVID-19 pande­mic is caus­ing massive dislo­ca­tion in econo­mies and finan­cial markets world­wide. Many compa­nies, espe­ci­ally small and medium-sized ones, run into liqui­dity bott­len­ecks that they cannot absorb through tradi­tio­nal finan­cing chan­nels such as bank loans. In such times of crisis, private debt funds gain in importance. In this phase, Golding Capi­tal Part­ners successfully closed the first subscrip­tion period of the Golding Private Debt 2020 fund with a volume of almost 200 million euros.

At present, access to addi­tio­nal capi­tal needed in the short term is consider­a­bly rest­ric­ted for many compa­nies. The crisis-indu­­ced decline in tradi­tio­nal forms of finan­cing, such as bank loans or the more liquid capi­tal markets, has resul­ted in liqui­dity problems, in some cases threa­tening the very exis­tence of SMEs in parti­cu­lar. Private debt funds gain addi­tio­nal importance in such times of crisis. They can close the finan­cing gap in the case of growth finan­cing, acqui­si­ti­ons, refi­nan­cing, but also tempo­rary liqui­dity bott­len­ecks and offer sustainable solu­ti­ons with alter­na­tive forms of financing.

Foun­der and CEO Jeremy Golding: “The Corona crisis has shown that compa­nies need quick and uncom­pli­ca­ted “cash injec­tions”. This is the only way they can main­tain opera­ti­ons and secure jobs. Banks are often not suita­ble finan­cing part­ners due to incre­asingly strin­gent regu­la­ti­ons and capi­tal requi­re­ments. Private debt funds, on the other hand, can directly provide alter­na­tive finan­cing solu­ti­ons and often support compa­nies with long-term capi­tal — at a much better risk and return profile.”

The invest­ment stra­tegy of the Golding Private Debt 2020 fund is to build a broadly diver­si­fied port­fo­lio of prima­rily bila­te­ral finan­cings nego­tia­ted directly with medium-sized compa­nies in Europe and North America (“corpo­rate direct lending”). The focus is on senior secu­red loans; subor­di­na­ted loans are also taken into account on a selec­tive basis. Depen­ding on the market envi­ron­ment, Golding also invests in selec­ted funds with a focus on special situa­tions invol­ving, for exam­ple, the oppor­tu­ni­stic acqui­si­tion of loans in the secon­dary market or speci­fic complex corpo­rate situa­tions. The plan is to set up 15 to 20 primary and secon­dary funds as well as co-inves­t­­ments as an oppor­tu­ni­stic addi­tion. To date, one co-inves­t­­ment has alre­ady been imple­men­ted and the first primary funds have been subscribed.

Proven crisis resistance
Alre­ady during and after the global econo­mic crisis of 2008/2009, the private debt asset class demons­tra­ted excel­lent crisis resis­tance compared to other asset clas­ses. Nega­tive valua­tion discounts in the private debt market, for exam­ple, were fully offset after around nine months. Such low vulnerabi­lity in crises contri­bu­tes signi­fi­cantly to rising demand in this segment. Current market analy­ses confirm this clear growth trend: around one-third of the inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors surveyed are plan­ning to invest more heavily in private debt in view of the Corona crisis.

“For our inves­tors, it pays to invest in private debt funds. Not only because our offe­rings in this area are parti­cu­larly stable and resi­li­ent due to our diver­si­fied approach and broad diver­si­fi­ca­tion to around 600 — 800 tran­sac­tions world­wide. But also because it enables us to gene­rate attrac­tive risk-adjus­­ted returns and, with an average net IRR of 7 to 8 percent, we have an excel­lent perfor­mance. In the ongo­ing low-inte­­rest envi­ron­ment, this is an excel­lent invest­ment oppor­tu­nity for insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors,” says Mana­ging Direc­tor and CIO Dr. Matthias Reicher­ter.

Golding was one of the pioneers in this asset class in 2003 and can ther­e­fore draw on many years of successful invest­ment exper­tise in the private debt market. Golding curr­ently mana­ges around EUR 3.5 billion in this asset class for insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors. Capi­tal is curr­ently spread across 17 invest­ment programs (inclu­ding funds of funds, co-inves­t­­ment funds and mana­ged accounts).

About Golding Capi­tal Part­ners GmbH
Golding Capi­tal Part­ners GmbH is one of the leading inde­pen­dent asset mana­gers for private equity, private debt and infra­struc­ture in Europe. With a team of over 100 employees based in Munich, Luxem­bourg, London, New York and Tokyo, Golding Capi­tal Part­ners supports insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors in buil­ding their invest­ment stra­tegy and mana­ges assets of over €9 billion. The appro­xi­m­ately 200 insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors include insu­rance compa­nies, pension funds, foun­da­ti­ons, family offices as well as banks, savings banks and coope­ra­tive banks.