Pollen Street completes merger with MW Eaglewood

POLLEN Street Capital has completed its acquisition of a controlling stake in MW Eaglewood, creating one of Europe’s biggest alternative finance-focused investment managers.

The deal, first announced in May, sees Honeycomb Investment Trust manager Pollen Street become the majority shareholder of the combined group, which has assets of around £2bn.

MW Eaglewood, which manages the fund P2P Global Investments (P2PGI), has been renamed PSC Eaglewood.

P2PGI said the merger “combines the global reach, infrastructure and specialist platform knowledge of PSC Eaglewood with the relationships, track record and industry expertise of Pollen Street”.

It previously stated that the portfolio will have greater exposure to sterling denominated assets and maintain exposure to a tighter group of marketplace lending platforms.

Lindsey McMurray, managing partner of Pollen Street, will be heading up the combined entity.

The deal comes after P2PGI said in April it had undertaken a review of its investment management arrangements following poor returns and heavy trading discounts on the fund’s shares.

In August, the London-listed fund said its performance was gradually improving, with 2.34 per cent NAV growth in the first half of the year. This was lower than growth of 2.37 per cent in the same period a year earlier but better than the second half of 2016, the company said.

The fund’s performance target is a return of between six and eight per cent.

Ian Wace, chief executive of hedge fund giant Marshall Wace, which is retaining a substantial holding in the combined group, said in May that the deal would create a major industry player “with deep and market-leading capability in specialist credit”.