Metric Capital Partners has held a first close on its MCP Private Capital Fund I within eight months of its launch. Metric is targeting a final close of €300 million and has raised a meaningful amount for its first close, according to sources. The firm is now looking to deploy capital across its primary and secondary credit special situation strategies.
Metric Capital is led by John Sinik, a former Partner at TowerBrook and former global head of corporate credit at UBS. Metric’s success in raising a first-time fund is due to the team’s historic low loss rate on capital committed and the returns on special situation investments, which have exceeded five times invested capital, sources said.
Led by an experienced team of European investment professionals, the fund places emphasis on fundamental credit analysis with deep due diligence completed prior to investing, and also benefits from the team’s deep network in the accounting and legal communities. Metric Capital believes that smaller, more boutique-style outfits such as itself are better suited to meet the niche financing needs of small- and medium-sized companies, than the investment banking style relationships offered by the large banks.
The closing of the fund is the latest development in the European middle-market lending space, where various non-bank lenders see opportunities among SMEs that are suffering as banks cut back their lending activities. SMEs typically cannot create sufficient liquidity for capital market issuance, or for most non-bank lenders, such as CLOs and the large credit funds established by private equity firms. Moreover, Metric’s secondary market practice targets the less liquid off-the-run names, that are less appropriate for leveraged vehicles and hedge funds.
Most recently, the LMA has made recommendations to the U.K.’s Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) on how non-bank lending via syndicated loans can be encouraged, in response to a BIS consultation. That consultation relates to barriers preventing non-bank financing flowing into medium- and small-sized businesses in the U.K. – Sohko Fujimoto