Former Bain Capital executive to launch credit fund business

Atlas Capital Partners, a firm launched by the former head of portfolio finance at investment firm Bain Capital Credit, Sean Tarrant, is set to launch its maiden pan-European real estate debt fund. According to Tarrant, the business has been created to capitalise on what he sees as a “once-in-a-cycle” opportunity to invest in property debt amid refinancing shortfall.

Speaking to Real Estate Capital Europe, Tarrant said the firm is looking to launch the Credit Opportunities Fund 1 either at the end of this year or in the early part of next year. The firm will look to raise between €100 million and €150 million, he added.

“We are opportunity driven and the combination of high interest rates, limited competition for medium-sized loan tickets and a large potential funding gap provides a once-in-a-cycle opportunity to generate very attractive risk-adjusted returns,” Tarrant said.

Through the fund, the firm will look to provide mid-sized sponsors with stretched-senior loans of up to 70 percent loan-to-value, secured against real estate assets in Europe. The facilities provided will range between €10 million-€50 million per loan. The firm will have a pan-European scope but with a strong focus on the UK, Germany and France.

The firm will target returns ranging between high single digit to low teens, Tarrant added.

Market participants have told Real Estate Capital Europe this year that fundraising has been more strained due to the denominator effect on investors’ portfolios due to rising interest rates. However, Tarrant, who acknowledges the difficulties, believes this is only the case with institutional investors, with the firm seeing increased appetite from family offices and high-net-worth investors.

“While we acknowledge the challenges to raise funds from institutional investors, we see positive feedback and strong appetite from family offices and HNWIs who are less focussed on allocation to alternative asset classes, but more opportunity driven and ready to increase their exposure to private real estate debt and equity for the right opportunities,” he added.

Tarrant registered the fund management business Atlas Capital Partners to a London address on 8 August according to filings with the UK’s company register Companies House. He will be joined by former Bain Capital and Apollo Global Management employee Christoph Nickel, now partner at Atlas.