BNP Paribas AM

BNP Paribas Asset Management aims to deploy £300m through first UK SME fund




BNP Paribas Asset Management has revealed that it hopes to deploy £300m through its first UK SME debt fund.

BNP Paribas UK SME Debt Fund 1 will invest in senior loans to SMEs with an annual turnover of less than £50m, which are originated via BNPP AM’s SME alternative financing platform.

It is targeting SMEs which aren’t big enough to secure funding from investment funds, but are too big to access finance through crowdfunding or P2P lending.

Speaking at the BNP Paribas Asset Management seminar on disruption and impact investing in UK SME lending, Philip Dawes, head of UK sales at BNP Paribas Asset Management, outlined plans for the fund which is set to go live in Q4 2018/Q1 2019.

“We are looking at a portfolio of 150-200 loans … across the UK.

“We have the intention to deploy, we think, £300m, [which] is a fair amount for the capacity of the first fund.”

Philip also revealed that it would be looking to launch further funds.

“…We have somewhat snappily called it the SME Debt Fund 1, so that will imply that we will be subsequently raising further funds in two years and three years.”

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