EUR 83m first closing for Certior Credit Opportunities Fund III SCSp targeting smaller senior loans across Europe
HELSINKI – Certior Credit Opportunities Fund III (CCOF III) SCSp has recently held a first close at EUR 83m backed by a group of Finnish, Benelux and Spanish institutions. The fund aims to achieve 10%+ net IRR to investors through a diversified pan-European portfolio of 100+ senior secured loans. CCOF III will focus predominantly on the European SME direct lending segment, benefiting from special terms through seeding experienced country-specific management teams (50%), often in their first or second institutional funds, and through co-investments (50%). CCOF III expects to make several primary commitments to support such managers and execute a number of co-investments before the year end. The fund is targeting to raise EUR 300m from international investors. The new vehicle is following the same investment strategy as its two successful predecessor funds which are both showing net IRRs in excess of 10% with 80% of the capital invested in senior secured loans.
“We are very grateful to investors in the predecessor vehicles, and several new LPs, who strongly supported the new fund at first close”, comments Ari Jauho, the Chairman of Certior Capital. “In our previous two funds we showed that we were able to build diversified portfolios of EUR 5-25m sponsorless senior loans and deliver very attractive returns. While massive amounts of capital are chasing larger, PE sponsored deals we continue to see very little institutional money focus on SME direct lending transactions. These smaller loans into profitable businesses can therefore still offer investors a high cash yield, attractive all-in pricing with upside potential, conservative capital structures and lender friendly terms with full covenants – features which we see across our portfolio of around 350 such loans”.
“Since we founded our own business 10 years ago, Certior has very deliberately sought to add extra returns through targeting areas of the European private equity and private credit markets which are undercapitalised and overlooked, through seeding new and emerging managers and by being a preferred co-investment partner”, adds Timo Hara, Co-founder and Partner at the firm. “The predecessor fund, CCOF II, committed to 6 primary funds, 1 secondary and 26 co-investments. With our new fund we are very much continuing this successful strategy”.
The AIFM for CCOF III is IQ-EQ Fund Management SA with a full AIFM licence and the depository is IQ-EQ Depositary Services SA. Certior Capital acts as investment advisor for the fund. Loyens Loeff in Luxembourg is legal advisor to the fund. Reporting is provided by Assetmetrix GmbH in Munich.
About Certior Capital
Certior Capital is a leading private equity and private credit advisor and alternative investment fund manager supervised by the Finnish FSA. The firm’s core expertise is in European lower- and mid-market private equity and private credit markets, where the team’s experience is one of the longest in Europe. Certior currently manages or advises a number of separate accounts and five investment programs. Certior Credit Opportunities Fund and Certior Credit Opportunities Fund II invest in niche SME direct lending funds and make investments directly into loans. Certior Credit Investments is a co-investment fund investing in European mid-market direct lending deals. Certior Private Equity Fund focuses on complex and unique European small- and mid-market private equity opportunities. Certior Special Opportunities Fund invests in distressed debt, special situations and opportunistic strategies.
For further comments or additional information please contact Ari Jauho:
Email: ari.jauho@certiorcapital.com
Tel: +358 50 33 78 282
