ACP Capital UK is planning a series of investment funds targeting the structured finance sector. The Jersey-based company focuses on a number of different assets. "We invest in buckets of securitized assets such as CMBS, RMBS and leveraged loans," Eric Youngblood, cfo, said. He added that securitization is an attractive possibility for refinancing purposes. "It makes sense to refinance our warehousing or leverage facilities through the CDO markets," he said. The company's strategy is hybrid. "It's mostly lending, with some buying, and we will aim to use some securitization technology," he added.
The firm recently hired Nikolaj Larsen from Nomura International as managing director and head of strategic investments. Larsen, who headed core underwriting and focused on asset-backed and non-asset backed transactions, joins several former colleagues, including Youngblood and Derek Vago, ceo. Youngblood headed asset-backed securitization and Vago headed asset finance at Nomura.
The first fund is ACP Mezzanine Limited, to be listed on the London Stock Exchange later this year with a target equity fund of $200-250 million, according to its listing document. ACP Capital aims to launch a series of funds--approximately once per year--and one of the buckets it is presently looking at includes securitized bonds rated BB and B, Youngblood said. It also wants to raise further funds to target special situations, such as equity in CLOs.