Medalist Partners closes fund on $600m

Medalist Partners, a New York-based private credit firm, closed its Asset-Based Private Credit Fund III on approximately $600 million.

According to Michael Ardisson, co-founder and president, the fundraising beat the target and nearly doubled the size of the predecessor fund.

Medalist was founded in May 2018 by Ardisson, Greg Richter and John Slonieski. Before that, they had done business as Candlewood Investment Group. They spun out from Candlewood as Medalist in 2018, keeping some of the same funds they had managed at Candlewood.

Ardisson had worked on asset management at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. He met Richter and Slonieski at Credit Suisse, where they all worked on specialty finance and securitisation. Richter was the global head of that business.

Medalist now has an AUM of $2.2 billion. In March 2019, less than a year after its founding, it acquired considerable exposure to the CLO market through its acquisition of JMP Credit Advisors.

Medalist has developed a wide range of investors including family offices, endowments, pensions and foundations.

In the announcement of the closing of Fund III, Richter said, “We have continually differentiated our asset-based private credit platform with a focus on robust collateral and consistent cash flow in niche parts of the specialty finance market.”

That “robust collateral” includes receivables, consumer loans, aircraft, both commercial and residential real estate, commercial equipment and much else, Ardisson recently told Private Debt Investor.

The precursor fund (Fund II) closed in December 2019 with $308 million. Fund II and Fund III share a strategic focus on senior debt, US corporates, infrastructure and real estate.

The first fund in the line (Fund I), created under Candlewood auspices, closed in July 2016 at $106.7 million.