Ranger Direct Lending bolsters board to accelerate closure

RANGER Direct Lending (RDL), the alternative finance-focused investment trust, has made several board hires and established two new committees to speed up the winding down of the company.

The fund revealed in June it would wind down over growing shareholder dissatisfaction and its declining value.

Brett Miller, who previously served as an executive director of specialist fund Damille Investments, has been appointed as a non-executive director.

RDL has established two new committees of the board, with Miller, Dominik Dolenec, Brendan Hawthorne and Gregory Share joining the remuneration and nomination committee; and Dolenec and Hawthorne joining the audit committee.

Read more: Refreshed Ranger Direct Lending board readies for wind up

The company said the two committees have been formed as working groups to engage with its investment manager, Ranger Alternative Management II, concerning the wind-down and realisation of the company’s existing portfolio.

“The re-constituted board aims to quickly and efficiently deliver on the shareholders’ overwhelming desire to wind down the company,” it stated.

“Any final decisions regarding the approach to the investment portfolio and any other proposals to be put to shareholders will be decided by the board as a whole. Transparency, accountability and stakeholder engagement will be paramount, as the company moves into the next phase.”

It comes after two of the fund’s largest shareholders, Oaktree Capital Management and LIM Advisors, opposed the appointment of Ares Capital Management as its new investment manager, resulting in Ares turning down the role.

RDL said in a London Stock Exchange announcement last month that it had “concluded that in the interests of certainty and protecting shareholder value the company should move to realise its assets in an orderly manner”.

Read more: Ranger Direct Lending chairman announces resignation