Metric exceeds hard cap for second fund

Metric Capital Partners, a UK-based private debt group founded by John Sinik and Giovanni Miele in 2011, has raised €465 million for its second fund, the firm told PDI.  

The amount exceeds the fund’s hard cap of €450 million, and its initial target of €400 million.  

Metric officially began fundraising in February, and held a first close on €340 million in May. Macfarlanes provided legal advice on the fund's formation. 

There was a strong re-up rate from LPs in Metric’s first fund, which raised €300 million in 2012, the firm said. The firm also secured commitments from a number of new LPs including sovereign wealth funds, insurers, university endowment funds, fund of funds managers and pension funds.  The biggest growth in new LPs was from US-based investors.  

Fund 1 is fully invested. A spate of recent exits from that fund helped to underline the attractiveness of the firm’s strategy, whereby Metric typically takes a piece of the borrower’s equity and seeks board representation as well as providing debt, sources said. The strategy leads to two return streams – ongoing cash yield from the loans and then further upside once the equity is sold on at the end of the investment.