10. JPM AM assigns new co-manager to €6bn worth of macro funds

JPM Asset Management assigned Virginia Martin Heriz as a portfolio manager across its suite of global macro funds. Heriz, who joined JPM AM from Aberdeen Standard Investments in 2019, was officially assigned to three funds within the company’s Luxembourg-domiciled fund range on 22 March.

Heriz will work alongside the existing managers Shrenick Shah, Josh Berelowitz and Benoit Lanctot on the €5.39bn JPM Global Macro Opportunities, €780m JPM Global Macro and €692m JPM Global Macro Sustainable funds.

9. Vontobel bulks up fixed income desk with series of hires

Vontobel built on the expansion of its fixed income operations by adding four new faces in its New York and Zurich offices. The most prominent of the new recruits is portfolio manager Marc van Heems, who has joined from rival group Lombard Odier Investment Managers. He had overseen several funds at LOIM covering Swiss franc debt, as well as European and emerging market bonds.

8. Mobius co-founder joins GIB as part of EM expansion

Gulf International Bank (GIB)’s asset management arm appointed former Mobius Capital Partners pair Greg Konieczny and Kunal Desai to serve in its newly formed emerging market equity team.

Konieczny, who was one of the three co-founders of Mobius Capital Partners in 2018, will serve as head of global emerging markets equities.

Desai, who also worked at Mobius where he was co-responsible for the creation and implementation of their EM equity investment process, will join as a portfolio manager for global emerging markets equities.

7. Manager steps down from recently soft-closed JPM thematic fund

Berkan Sesen stepped off the $1.9bn (€1.6bn) JPM Thematics Genetic Therapies fund, with Yazann Romahi and Aijaz Hussein remaining on the thematic fund, Citywire Selector learned. In a statement on JPM Asset Management’s website, the company said Sesen stepped down as a fund manager on 2 March.

A spokesperson for JPM AM confirmed to Citywire Selector that Sesen has left the firm to pursue another opportunity. The investment process of the Luxembourg-domiciled fund remains the same.

6. Exclusive: LOIM makes three hires for Asian equity team

Lombard Odier Investment Managers hired three Asian equity experts and one portfolio manager for its sustainable strategies. Henry Zhang joined as a portfolio manager from Harvest Global Investments. He is based in Hong Kong and will take charge of the China High Conviction strategy.

The second hire for the Asian and emerging markets equity is Ashley Chung, who will be acting as a fund analyst and a junior portfolio manager. Faye Gao also joined the team, who, like Zhang, joins from Harvest Global Investments. She is based in Hong Kong and brings a deep knowledge of the financials and property sectors.

5. Converts head exits bond boutique after two decades

Akin Akinloye, head of convertible bonds at Cheyne Capital hedge fund, left the UK-based group after nearly two decades with the company. Akinloye joined the company in 2000 and has worked as a portfolio manager, as well as a partner, for the company. He had been the lead manager on the Cheyne Convertibles Absolute Return fund, which is now overseen by Annelie Fearon.

4. Co-head of AM leaves Goldman Sachs after six months in role

Goldman Sachs’s co-head of asset management, Eric Lane, is leaving the firm after just six months in his current role. According to an internal memo, Lane will be working closely with Julian Salisbury, his fellow co-head, to ensure a smooth transition. The duo assumed their responsibility at the helm of the asset management division in September 2020.

3. Ex-Santander UK CIO joins Nedgroup as investments head

Nedgroup Investments hired Santander Asset Management’s former chief investment officer for the UK, Tom Caddick, to serve as its head of investments in London for the multi-management division. The appointment of Caddick, who stepped down from Santander AM at the start of 2020, is part of Nedgroup’s plans to broaden its reach in the UK market.

2. Veteran manager and deputy CIO to exit H2O AM

Embattled fund house H2O Asset Management announced a refocusing of its investment efforts, which involves funds being closed or refined. As a result of the changes, veteran fund manager Gonzague Legoff and deputy chief investment officer Jean-Jacques Duhot left the boutique.

In a statement outlining the changes, H2O Asset Management said it has assessed its long/short equity coverage and its crossover with existing strategies and other areas of expertise. This has resulted in the closure of the H2O Fidelio fund and will also see the H2O Atlanterra fund close.

1. Former H2O fund manager launches global macro boutique

Former H2O Asset Management fund manager Jeremy Touboul has a new boutique to focus on sustainable opportunities in the global macro discretionary space.

Touboul, who stepped down from H2O AM in late 2019, has joined forces with former State Street France chief executive officer Raphaël Remond to launch the new firm, which is called LIOR Global Partner.

Touboul, who was Citywire AAA-rated for his risk-adjusted performance across several funds at H2O prior to his exit, will serve as chief investment officer of the new venture.

Credit and real estate experts have described the differing degrees to which the pandemic has affected markets and the extent to which the memory of the GFC has affected the recovery.

Speaking in a session on domestic credit lending, CIP Asset Management head of acquisition David Hoskins said that while the overall speed of recovery asset classes has been quick – 12 months as opposed to two years after the global financial crisis – that speed has “really varied” by sector.

“We’ve seen retail bounce back quickly with the trend to online. Then we’ve seen other sectors we thought would be resilient have been more impacted like childcare because of the increase of people working from home. Then other sectors we thought were in decline, it actually accelerated that decline, if we think of cinemas and the growth of streaming services,” Hoskins explained.

With that overarching view, Hoskins added that existing investors have also heavily retreated to domestic markets. “That’s exactly what we saw in the GFC,” he said.

According to Benefit Street Partners senior portfolio manager and head of real estate Michael Comparato, the credit market is “slowly coming back” in 2021. Like Hoskins, however, he emphasized the uneven nature of the recovery.

“People began lending again in multi-family in the middle market probably in the early to mid-fourth quarter of 2020, and we’re slowly started to see people dip their toes into hospitality lending, office lending,” Comparato explained during a session focussed on pandemic dislocations. “There is still a lot of uncertainty out there, we’re seeing them tread lightly but they’re slowly coming back.”

Different fortunes

Comparato said most asset classes actually performed “fairly well” during the pandemic period, other than the hospitality and to a lesser degree multi-family real estate and associated credit.

“Multi-tethered and multi-family that’s a little more tied to the overall economy have struggled a little in terms of rent collections and then obviously closed malls have been on a slow steady train wreck of a decline for quite some time,” he described.

Even within sectors, subsectors experienced vastly different fortunes during 2020, he continued.

“The large loan credit market was not affected materially at all, however the middle market was absolutely decimated, Comparato explained. “The middle market is really a collection of smaller, under-capitalised debt funds and smaller community banks and when things like pandemics or GFCs hit they do not have the wherewithal, the balance sheet or the relationships to get through those times.”

One sector that has made a significant and likely permanent change is shift out of traditional major cities, Comparato observed. High-tech cities like New York and California will continue to lose people and business while high costs pervades, he said.

“Look at Texas, Florida, they have 1,000 people a day moving into those states,” he said. “I do not see anything reversing this trend in the foreseeable future… As the population moves the businesses move. Capital goes where it is welcome and it stays as long as its welcome.

No blanket assumptions

Such is the variance across sectors performance during the pandemic, Cheyne Capital hedge fund head of real estate credit Ravi Stickey warned the audience against homogenous assumptions, especially in real estate.

“I think the tendency to blanket the performance of all real estate asset classes for covid is probably not correct,” he said.

Anything linked to retail real estate has certainly suffered, Stickey agreed, and the office sector has clearly pulled back. But pinning this purely on the pandemic would be akin to false attribution, he believes.

“A lot of the changes in valuations and usage we’ve seen have been driven not so much by the pandemic itself but rather from investors appreciation of the structural changes and how we may price real estate going forward not just in the coming years, but in the coming decades as well,” Stickey explained.

Debt may be “a different story”, however. After being tarnished with the same brush after 2008, real estate debt has “retrenched” in terms of risk profile and the leverage held REITS, he explained.

“Coming into this part crisis I don’t see real estate debt being overstretched; perhaps because of the prior crisis that caused that retrenchment in the first place.”

Akin Akinloye, head of convertible bonds at Cheyne Capital, has left the UK-based group after nearly two decades with the company, Citywire Selector can reveal.

Akinloye joined the company in 2000 and has worked as a portfolio manager, as well as a partner, for the company. He had been the lead manager on the Cheyne Convertibles Absolute Return fund, which is now overseen by Annelie Fearon.

Akinloye was profiled by Citywire Selector in October 2019, where he talked about the challenges of navigating the ‘hype’ cycle which saw a rush of new issuance in the convertible bonds space over that year.

Fearon, who has been with the company since 2003, is now serving as head of the convertible bond team, according to the Cheyne Capital website.

In a statement to Citywire, Cheyne said: ‘After 20 years at Cheyne, Akin Akinloye will be leaving the firm this month. Annelie Fearon will take over sole leadership of Cheyne’s Convertible Bond team upon his departure, having spent a total of 14 years as a principle member of the firm’s convertible team, initially as an analyst and latterly a portfolio manager.’

The Cheyne Convertibles Absolute Return fund returned 14.8% in euro terms over the three years to the end of February 2021. This is while the average fund in the Alt Ucits – Convertibles sector returned 3.5% over the same period.

Lacrem, fabricante de los helados Farggi con planta en Palau-solità i Plegamans (Vallès Occidental), ha solicitado 70 millones al fondo de apoyo a la solvencia a empresas estratégicas que gestiona la SEPI. La compañía catalana ha realizado esta petición después de verse muy afectada en su negocio por la pandemia, que castigó sus ventas sobre todo en el canal de bares y restaurantes (horeca), cerrados o con restricciones muy importantes durante buena parte del 2020. Farggi ha solicitado que los 70 millones de la SEPI se repartan entre un préstamo participativo y deuda sénior a muy largo plazo con el objetivo de superar la crisis derivada de la covid. Después de unos años en los que pasó por serias dificultades financieras –tras la compra de La Menorquina en el 2017–, Farggi pasó a estar controlada casi al 100% por el fondo Cheyne Capital en junio del año pasado. Tanto la familia Farga como Black Toro Capital (BTC) desaparecieron prácticamente entonces del accionariado.

En la nueva etapa, Cheyne pasaba a controlar una empresa sin deuda financiera con la voluntad de darle la vuelta y acometer un ambicioso plan de expansión. Pero entonces irrumpió la pandemia y, como ocurrió con todas las empresas altamente dependientes de la restauración, el turismo o el ocio y los viajes, el impacto de la crisis ha sido severo. Farggi no acudió a los préstamos bancarios con el aval del ICO el año pasado, pero ahora sí que ha solicitado tener acceso a los fondos públicos.

En circunstancias normales, la compañía, que tiene 500 trabajadores –la mayor parte, en la fábrica de Palau–, facturaría unos 80 millones. Farggi compra el 75% de los componentes de sus productos en España (50%, en Catalunya) y tiene mucha confianza en superar la situación gracias al trabajo realizado en los últimos ocho meses, desde que Cheyne tomó el control de la firma.

Los cambios introducidos desde entonces han afectado a muchos departamentos clave, se ha reforzado el I+D y se ha dado un impulso a la actividad comercial para crecer en el canal de alimentación (supermercados e hipermercados) y la exportación. Aunque la reapertura de la economía es todavía incierta a causa de la pandemia y de las medidas para combatirla, Farggi confía en tener una buena temporada de verano, cuando se concentran las ventas de sus productos.

Al margen de Farggi, al menos otras dos empresas han avanzado en el proceso de solicitud de los fondos de la SEPI. Se trata de Mediterránea de Cátering, participada por el fondo de capital Portobello, que ha pedido 40 millones, y Soho Boutique Hotels, cadena hotelera con fuerte implantación en Málaga y otras ciudades, que aspira a recibir préstamos públicos por 30 millones. El miércoles pasado, la ­SEPI aprobó la solicitud de 120 millones de Duro Felguera, que deberá pasar próximamente por el Consejo de Ministros.

Goldman Sachs-backed London retirement living developer Riverstone has secured a £99m (€115m) development finance facility from Cheyne Capital.

Cheyne Capital said the Fulham Riverside development debt facility is one of the largest single asset financings in the UK over-65s living market, ”underscoring the fundamental strength of the sector with a large imbalance between supply and high demand due to the UK’s ageing population”.

Filippo Alessandria of Cheyne Capital said: “We have strong conviction in Riverstone’s model and in the growth potential of high-quality, assisted living in prime locations.

“With COVID-19 having accelerated a multitude of irreversible trends in the way we live and work, there will continue to be a shift in the way real estate assets are used.

“Identifying strong sponsors who can provide solutions to areas of growing demand continues to be a key focus for us, particularly in identifying senior-lending opportunities in value-add or development assets.”

Simon Loveridge, Riverstone CFO, said: “Securing development finance for Fulham Riverside through Cheyne Capital is another endorsement for the growing appeal of over-65s living and the Riverstone model.

“At Riverstone we plan to acquire a prime London pipeline over the next five years, putting us at the forefront of the UK’s opportunity to create a world-class retirement living sector to match locations such as the US, Australia and New Zealand.”

Riverstone is developing two major sites in London, in Fulham and Kensington, which are due for completion in 2022, and has a near-term pipeline of several further sites.

Last year saw a record amount of convertible bond issuance as companies faced with government-mandated lockdowns rushed to raise capital, and for Cheyne Capital’s Annelie Fearon, there is still a significant opportunity for the asset class in 2021.

Convertible bonds are hybrid instruments that have the right to convert the debt of the issuing company into a pre-agreed number of shares.

While they typically have lower yields than bonds, if the share price of the issuer goes up, it can deliver high returns. In addition, convertibles provide downside protection. Twitter, Airbnb and Spotify are among large companies that have announced convertible bond issuance recently.

In 2020 there were 521 issues that raised $188bn, according to data from Refinitiv Deals Intelligence, the highest number of issues recorded since 1998. Year-to-date there have been 102 issues already, raising $52.6bn, surpassing the 71 issues worth $24.6bn that was recorded over the same period in 2020.

Fearon took over sole leadership of Cheyne’s convertible bond team, running the group’s Convertibles Absolute Return fund, following the departure of Akin Akinloye last month. She has been a principal member of the team for 15 years, initially as analyst and then as a portfolio manager.

In her opinion, there is still scope to benefit from cheap convexity.

‘There was a lot of cheapening that happened in 2020, there was a lot of opportunity to benefit from dislocations and there was a lot of primary issuance,’ she said.

‘There remains a very interesting opportunity set. Why this asset class look interesting now is there is an enormous amount of dispersion between individual names and sectors.

‘On the one hand you have digital growth names where the pandemic accelerated business models, on the other hand you have recovery type names where they have issued converts to suppport liquidity, but they’ve had to come with their equity prices relatively depressed. There is an opportunity to get convex exposure to recovery type names.’

The Cheyne Convertibles Absolute Return fund has delivered a 13.8% return in the year to the end of February, according to Morningstar figures, compared to the sector average of 10.2%.

Tesla play

One of the investments that contributed to returns was Tesla. While Fearon had been sceptical about the credit quality and the equity valuation of the company historically, she saw evidence it was beginning to generate sustainable cash flows.

The fund invested in the shortest dated convertible bonds, confident of Tesla’s ability to repay it. In addition, the valuation of the convertible bond was very attractive.

‘There was an opportunity to benefit from the cheap optionality. As the situation evolved in early 2020, there was a huge amount of volatility so the convert richened and there was also opportunity to generate additional returns by trading gamma.

Like many fund managers in recent times, Fearon has also been looking at how to get involved in the popular renewable energy generation theme, which she has achieved through an investment in Prysmian Group, an Italian cable manufacturer.

‘It’s a high quality credit and has exposure to the renewables theme because of the cabling that’s required for building out solar power projects. That’s an interesting way of reflecting that exposure without being involved in high-multiple renewable names where there is valuation risk.’

Inflation expectations

As many economies bounce back from coronavirus-induced lockdowns, inflation expectations have been picking up. Historically convertible bonds have served as effective inflation-protection plays.

‘Historically when inflation has picked up and interest rates have risen converts have outperformed because they have this equity optionality,’ Fearon said.

‘We looked at the last four periods where there had been 200bps upward move in Treasuries. On average equities delivered 38% and converts delivered 33%.’

CO-LIVING COMES TO TOWN

Renting to Generation Z

Downing is free to go ahead with 45-storey plans for co-living in Manchester after a final planning obstacle was overcome for the 2,224-bed scheme (pictured). More developers will follow. But how do you price the risk in an all-but-untested sector?

Co-living is the short-term let, flat-sharing version of build-to-rent. It is targeted at post-college young professionals and is marketed with a strong whiff of the Generation Z wellbeing/kindness bromide. It is a niche within a niche. A handful of small-scale Manchester options (see Oppidan Life), and another handful in London (see Gravity Co-Living) sit in the shadow of one sizeable player, Reza Merchant’s The Collective. Downing – and Vita and IQ, which between them add more than 1,000 further bedspaces in Manchester – are entering a market so new it still smells of the box.

Pick a number

The trouble is that nobody has a clue how much demand there is for such a novelty product. Fortunately we can conjecture by looking at similar (though different) products in Manchester. The answer seems to be comforting for developers and investors, because however small it is, it is easily bigger than supply.

So, for example

Beech Holdings’ Westpoint scheme in Trafford is “co-living-style” single occupancy (not the full co-living flat-share). According to its chief executive Stephen Beech, 3,000 enquiries a month about Westpoint (and 100% occupancy) suggests demand for co-living in the city will be strong. It also suggests he should expand, which is what he’s going to do. Beech is preparing a £100m second phase, adding 600 bed spaces to the 317 Westpoint has already, branding it Urban Collective (another nod to that Generation Z vibe). Beech says: “Young graduates have been telling us this is what they want since 2015, so to anyone who doubts the evidence for co-living, I say the evidence is here.”

Place your bets

The people who control the money like the sound of this. Beech secured £130m plus equity from Saudi-based AIMS Investments. Last week, The Collective secured £28.5m from private equity innovators Cheyne Capital, funding that allows it to buy a site in West London. This is Cheyne’s third investment with The Collective, and it is hoping to reap a first-mover advantage. Subplot has heard various estimates of the kind of returns investors have in mind and 7% yields get mentioned. In today’s low-return world that is more than enough to attract private equity and private office wealth with a moderate appetite for risk.

Developers explore

Scenting investor interest, other developers are checking out the prospects in both Liverpool and Manchester. For many, this is simply one of many due diligence exercises to maximise site value (senior living, BTR, students are also getting checked out). Others are more seriously pursuing co-living. John Cooper, planning partner at Deloitte, and an advisor on the Downing application, says: “There has been fairly significant developer interest. But it is not a firm proposal, it’s an option. It’s about understanding the risk profile, the rewards, and the planning issues, because so far this has not been entirely straightforward.”

Vibe check

There are dangers. Vastly expanding the supply of co-living space would, given the unknown depth of demand, be the worst possible thing for this early-stage market. With so much money washing around, and not much evidence to prick the bubble of confidence, it would be easy to overbuild. You only need to look at the dire fate of casual dining to see what a mess that leads to.

We heart the city council

Everyone Subplot spoke to agreed over-supply was the immediate risk. Fortunately, Manchester City Council has inadvertently minimised the danger by imposing a cap of 5,000 units on city centre co-living development, and by restricting new-build to a handful of locations. With a pipeline of 3,500-plus units already consented this is a mighty comfort to developers (and a spur to new entrants).

Collective failure

The market would really light up, and prices/confidence soar, if The Collective decided to add Manchester to its chill list of global venues. Subplot asked The Collective several times when it plans to expand to Manchester, and got no answer.

If it all goes wrong

But suppose co-living is a dead end? Suppose demand is shallower than enthusiasts believe? Suppose fashions change – and fashion matters a lot to co-living’s hyper-self-conscious target audience? How do investors price this risk, and where is the residual value? Once again, the city council has their back, because officials have been insisting that co-living schemes be capable of repurposing if the experiment fails. Forewarned, developers have been careful to create buildings which require no hyper-expensive M&E adjustments and with internal walls can happily be rearranged. The residual value – and potential to convert into student housing, hotels, apartments or even offices – remains. Investors are delighted.

Demographics

As so often in the North West, property decisions boil down to demographics. Stephen Hogg, head of North West at JLL, says: “Co-living has a place in Manchester, as with all large urban centres, to give residents maximum choice in accommodation. Those cities with a younger population – Manchester and London being the only two [UK] cities with over 45% of the population being under the age of 35 – need to fill the gap and co-living gives this audience more choice and more quality accommodation.” JLL says it had a stellar first quarter of 2021, with Manchester residential lettings 105% up on the same time in (pre-Covid) 2019. JLL deduces that demand for co-living would also be strong. Sometime soon we’ll discover if that is right.

Conclusion: Big-ish risks mean big rewards for hard-headed investors in a scalable property niche trading heavily on Generation Z’s cherished values.

The Collective agreed to acquire the canal-side site in July 2019, subject to planning consent, which was granted by Westminster City Council in April 2020. This is the third investment Cheyne has made into The Collective, having previously supported projects in Canary Wharf and Earlsfield.

Designed by RIBA Stirling Prize-winning architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM), The Collective Westbourne Park, set against 40 m of canal frontage, includes 286 rooms and the development is set to be completed in 2023. The Collective and Cheyne Capital will shortly commence reviewing options for development finance to fund the construction stage of the project.

Formerly the headquarters of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association in Westbourne Park, The Collective will transform the site into a new west London cultural destination, providing a vibrant, publicly-accessible 16,000 sq ft waterside piazza featuring a local dining experience, street food vendors and farmers’ markets, and an inspiring programme of arts and culture-focused events.

Members will have access to a broad range of world-class shared spaces including a state-of-the-art gym; wellness sanctuary with a pool, sauna and steam room; a cinema and a large community kitchen on the top floor with views across London.

The Collective Westbourne Park will also create a new performing arts space which will be available to use for free by local community groups including Paddington Arts. More than 12,000 sq ft of workspace designed for local entrepreneurs and makers will also be provided, with 20 per cent of the space available at discounted rental levels.

Reza Merchant, founder and CEO of The Collective, says: “In addition to allowing us to complete the acquisition of this incredible site, Cheyne Capital’s investment into The Collective Westbourne Park is a further endorsement of the institutional quality of the assets The Collective delivers and continued recognition of our model amongst investors.

“Our current operating portfolio has proven to be highly resilient throughout the pandemic, with demand underpinned by structural trends that have been accelerated by the pandemic including working from home and a rise in loneliness, giving us the confidence to bring forward game-changing developments like this one from our global pipeline.

“The Collective Westbourne Park will be a cultural destination for London built upon the foundations of local entrepreneurship and creativity that have historically made this neighbourhood so attractive and soulful. Our development will achieve the highest sustainability standards and our trademark Community Investment Programme will ensure the project has a transformational impact on the neighbourhood for many decades to come.”

Filippo Alessandria of Cheyne Capital comments: “We like to work with world-class partners over the long-term whom we know can be relied on to deliver high quality products. That we are now supporting our third co-living project with The Collective is proof that we have found such a partnership, and we are looking forward to continuing to work together on this exciting development.”

The Collective’s bespoke Community Investment Programme for its Westbourne Park project is worth over GBP770,000 and includes a dedicated Enterprise, Innovation and Community Fund for local start-ups and independent businesses. This has been devised with Westminster City Council and local stakeholders to ensure the development will act as a catalyst for a hyper-local approach to the regeneration of Westbourne Park and the wider Harrow Road area.

Alongside the focus on social impact, a heavy emphasis is placed on positive environmental initiatives. The Collective Westbourne Park will be rated as ‘BREEAM Excellent’ and use a range of green and sustainable technologies to ensure 100 per cent of electricity supplied is from renewable sources, contributing to the de-carbonisation of the national grid. The project will also be a car-free development and will provide a cycle hub for 200 bicycles, as well as offering a private cycle hire scheme to encourage members to use sustainable modes of transport.

A social impact real estate fund run by London-based alternative asset manager Cheyne Capital has made a “real impact on individual lives”, an independent audit by King’s College London’s Policy Institute has found.

The Cheyne Social Property Impact Fund – which invests across affordable and keyworker housing, temporary accommodation, and homes for adults with learning disabilities – has offered “genuine value to local authorities compared with their other options for delivering affordable housing”, the audit noted.

Launched in 2014 to help tackle the housing shortage faced by disadvantaged groups in the UK, Cheyne’s first social impact strategy has been audited on an annual basis for the past seven years by KCL’s Policy Institute.

“Sources have consistently reported that the quality of homes delivered by the fund is higher than what is generally available for affordable housing, providing a new standard of what should be possible,” the report said.

The audit – which measured the impact of each of the fund’s investments – indicated that Cheyne’s involvement in each project has helped raise living standards, and made a “real impact on [the] individual lives” of the various stakeholders, spanning tenants, council representatives and the wider community.

Stuart Fiertz, Cheyne’s co-founder, president and head of responsible investment, described the results of the audit as “a source of great pride.”

“When we launched this strategy seven years ago, we were confident that our approach would balance social and financial returns – but, as is often the case when venturing into new territory, many questioned whether this could be done,” Fiertz added.

He said the Policy Institute’s audit “not only confirms our belief – that social and financial returns can be complementary – but which also asserts that we are setting a new standard of what is possible.”

The fund has enabled local authorities to provide high quality emergency and temporary accommodation during a protracted housing affordability crisis, the audit noted, adding the fund “has filled a need in several housing spheres, beyond homelessness.”

The fund’s investment approach “can be thought of as a proof-of-concept for the viability and cost-saving potential of private investment to help local authorities in the provision of affordable housing,” it added.

Dr Rebecca Benson of King’s College London said: “Many of our fieldwork participants for this and previous reports have commented on the Fund’s flexibility and creativity, and reported a general impression of the fund as an investor willing to work with partners to find financial solutions for their unique needs.”

Madrid – Dopo l’intesa di massima raggiunta a dicembre, Naviera Armas, proprietaria di Trasmediterránea, ha sottoscritto nero su bianco un accordo con i suoi principali creditori finanziari (Barings, Bain Capital, Cheyne Capital e JPMorgan) per convertire in capitale un debito di 240 milioni di euro e per ricevere un’iniezione di liquidità di fino a 100 milioni di euro attraverso un prestito ponte.

A riportarlo è il sito spagnolo Expansión, il quale segnala che per salvare l’attuale situazione economica, la famiglia Armas intende contribuire con una iniezione di capitale di circa 40 milioni di euro, ottenuti attraverso la cessione della nave Villa de Teror al governo del Canada per circa 100 milioni di euro. La quota restante serve per coprire un debito pregresso. In questo modo, Armas potrà mantenere il controllo dei diritti del gruppo.

Secondo l’accordo, la scadenza delle obbligazioni, che non saranno convertite in capitale (per un totale di 292 milioni di euro), sarà prorogata dal 2023 e 2024 fino al 2026.