Fund Managers

Monroe forms specialty finance practice

Managing directors Lee Stern and Aaron Peck, as well as vice president Kyle Asher, will lead the firm’s new sector specialty.  

-

Monroe Capital has grouped several of its existing investment staff to focus on a new specialty finance vertical. Managing directors Lee Stern and Aaron Peck, together with vice president Kyle Asher, will lead the new business vertical.

Stern is based in New York, while Peck and Asher are based at the firm’s Chicago headquarters.

Peck said the group will look at making loans to a variety of specialty finances businesses, including consumer finance, commercial finance or leasing, litigation finance or online lending. The firm will aim to build a diverse portfolio of specialty finance loans, Peck said, and lend to these companies at Monroe’s usual ticket sizes of $10 million to $100 million.

The firm has already completed several transactions in this area. They include a $50 million loan to small business working capital lender, Channel Partners, and a $27.5 million deal with American Mortgage Consultants. Monroe also arranged a credit facility with an undisclosed amount backing the recap of Towne Mortgage Corporation by American Community Homes in October 2014. Towne originates and services mortgage loans on residential properties located primarily in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Peck has been with Monroe since 2012 serving as a portfolio manager for the firm’s business development company. Prior to Monroe, he held senior roles at Deerfield Capital Management, AEG Investors, Black Diamond Capital and Salomon Smith Barney.

Stern joined Monroe in 2014, focusing on club and co-lending deals for the East Coast region. Prior to Monroe, he worked at several large alternative investment firms, including GSO Capital Partners, KKR and Levine Leichtman Capital Partners.

Asher has worked at Monroe since 2009. Before that he was an analyst at Calder Capital Partners and MindShare Capital.

Monroe is a provider of senior and junior debt and equity co-investments to mid-market companies in the US and Canada. In addition to New York and Chicago, the firm has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Toronto.