PRESS RELEASE
RiverRock announces first close of the RiverRock Senior Loan Fund 2 in Partnership with ING Bank
RiverRock, the European asset manager specialising in private assets since 2011, today announced the first close for the RiverRock Senior Loan Fund II (RSLF2), the successor fund of RSLF 1, attracting €153 million in signed commitments from institutional investors in Europe and Asia.
The RLSF strategy involves a strategic co-investment partnership ING Bank N.V, a leading player in the European leveraged loan market. Co-investing with a leading bank like ING provides investors with access to Large Mid-Cap Corporates that are typically held closely only amongst a ‘club’ of banks and thus inaccessible for alternative debt providers. The focus on Large Mid-Caps and Club Deals gives RiverRock exposure to more resilient corporate borrowers, and enabling the manager to provide input into the key parameters of each underlying debt investment.
In 2019, RiverRock gathered €504 million in commitments from an array of insurance companies, pension funds and banks for predecessor fund RSLF1. Today, RSLF2 grows this tried and tested Bank-Fund co-investment partnership that has delivered to investors higher-than-expected performance without any loss of capital despite theCovid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine conflict.
Like its predecessor fund, RSLF2 will only invest in senior secured loans spanning a diversified range of sectors, with an average credit rating of BB-. Typically, borrowers will have an annual turnover of €500 million and EBITDA of €100 million. After the success of RSLF1, RSLF2 is targeting double the size in commitments, or €1 billion.
RSLF2 has already deployed a significant portion of its First-Close commitments to nine companies across Western Europe, all with commanding competitive positions in their respective sectors.
By Final Closing, RSLF2’s fully ramped portfolio will include ca. 100 loans.
Michel Péretié, Partner and CEO of RiverRock, said “We are extremely proud of our successful partnership with ING and of the performance of our RLSF funds and team in a challenging environment. We are confident that RLSF2 will again bring attractive risk/reward to our investors thanks to our unique positioning and to our unique experience in the Private Debt market.”
Horacio Martinez, Head of Capital Markets & Advisory at ING Bank, said “Continuing our successful partnership with RiverRock allows us to be more relevant for our clients, being able to support larger stakes leveraging our Origination capabilities, consistently taking up a larger stake in their financings, whilst at the same time giving investors access to our strong origination pipeline. It is a clear example of how our increased focus on capital velocity allows us to better serve both clients and partner investors.”
Taro Goto, Head of Bank Loans at RiverRock said “RiverRock’s exclusive relationship with ING bank, a consistent Top-5 player in the European leveraged loan space, allows us an unrivalled access, speed and quality of capital deployment. Our investors are extremely satisfied with the performance of RSLF1, and we believe RSLF2 will continue to offer LPs exposure to high-quality European corporations that are impossible to gain access to otherwise.”
David Owens, Managing Director and Head of Structured Distribution Solutions at ING Bank, said “With two-way exclusivity, the Senior Loan Fund is a unique strategy in the European market and a true partnership between ING, RiverRock and the Limited Partners. We believe the first senior loan fund demonstrated ING’s capacity and commitment to deliver strong deployment across a diversified range of European borrowers, and look forward to further success with the second fund.”