Nter Private Debt Fund – the largest fund of its type in the country – celebrates its five-year anniversary with a total investment amount closing in on €100 million. The fund managed to generate stable returns even in the face of the pandemic and the Ukraine war.
Of the 38 investments made by the fund over the past 5 years, 23 have now been completed, yielding €55 million in returns. Over this period, the fund had generated a 58.66% return for its Class A investors, exclusive of costs and provisions set aside to cover any potential losses. Last year, the fund demonstrated its second-best results of all time, generating net annual returns of 10.35% for investors of the same class. The fund’s portfolio is currently valued at €40 million, and the amount of returns it has generated for its investors exceeds €13 million.
According to Donatas Frejus, manager of the funds comprising the Nter Private Debt Fund: “The diversity of our team is among our key strengths. We have a team dedicated exclusively to this fund, and we seek to consistently expand it with new members. <...> Furthermore, the fund’s size gives us a great deal of bargaining power – both at the start of investment and during a project’s implementation.”
Some have claimed that, while the idea behind the fund was attractive, it had to first be stress-tested by a crisis. Although no crisis had materialised – some challenges have. “In the first year, there was a cycle of negative interest rates and a good deal of hostility to expensive money; in the second – COVID and the attendant shock; in the third – an avalanche of cheap stimulus money; in the fourth – the war in Ukraine; and in the fifth – a technical recession in the country. While there was certainly no shortage of challenges, we managed to meet them quite successfully,” said Benas Poderis, Partner and Head of Investment Department of Nter Asset Management.
According to Donatas, the best times for the fund are still ahead of it. “The cycle of rising interest rates seems to have ended, yet we don’t expect to go back to the 0% environment anytime soon. My prediction is that similar interest rates will last in both the U.S. and Europe for quite a while still, which means that demand for money at higher interest rates will stick around, as well.”