Lovells has advised M&G, the investment management arm of Prudential, on the launch of a £1bn company financing fund.
Partner Nicholas Holman led a team from Lovells advising M&G. The deal comes after Lovells advised the fund manager on the establishment of private equity infrastructure fund Infracapital in 2005.
“We started advising on the deal in 2005 and it continued until August 2008,” said Holman. “[M&G] thought we’d done a good job on this and so drafted us in to advise on a number of other fixed-income funds.”
M&G is one of the UK’s largest fund managers, with £76bn in assets under management. Of that, £61bn is invested in bonds.
The company financing fund is designed to provide finance to companies struggling to gain funding due to the downturn.
“It was challenging in that the market conditions aren’t so good but the innovative structure and purpose of the fund attracted investors,” said Holman.
He added that a number of other Lovells clients were considering establishing similar vehicles.
“It’s a very interesting area for our clients,” Holman said. “This is the first of its kind but there’s a real interest in developing other funds that serve sound companies suffering during the downturn.”
