CLSA raises $500m for second Asia private debt fund
CLSA Capital Partners has closed its second Asia-focused private debt fund – and a parallel co-investment vehicle – with $500 million in commitments.
The strategy for Lending Ark Asia Secured Private Debt Fund II is the same as its predecessor, which closed on $226 million last year. It will focus on privately negotiated, three-to-five-year maturity secured private debt financing, senior and mezzanine tranches of asset-backed securities, and bank-collateralized loan obligations. There will be quarterly US dollar-denominated distributions.
The fund manager, Lending Ark Asia, is a joint venture between CLSA CP and the founding principals – Gregory Park, previously head of Asia structured credit at The Carlyle Group, and Carol Lee Park, who has worked across investment banking, private equity, and private debt investment.
The management team is the majority shareholder in the fund holding company, with CLSA CP in a minority position. Lending Ark operates independently, but it relies on its parent’s back-end infrastructure as well as a trickle of local macro insights. CLSA is an institutional brokerage and investment group controlled by China’s CITIC Securities.
CLSA provided an anchor commitment to Fund I, but most of the capital came from third-party investors.
On closing the debut fund, Lending Ark claimed to be the first A-rated consumer small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) loan and trade receivables asset-backed private credit platform in Asia. It now has $1.1 billion in assets under management, including target allocations from separately managed
accounts.
“Lending Ark’s unique, asset-backed product acumen and proprietary regional issuer relationships allow the fund to operate efficiently and judiciously through these unprecedented times of COVID-restricted travel and heightened credit risk,” Gregory Park said in a statement.
Lending Ark is one of several tie-ups between seasoned credit investors and larger platforms in Asia. They are primarily targeting middle-market credit, looking to serve corporate borrowers that have either been overlooked by banks or are looking for new sources of capital as traditional lenders retreat.
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