CLIFFORD Capital Pte Ltd (CCPL), a provider of debt financing solutions, announced April 29 the establishment of a holding company structure under Clifford Capital Holdings (CCH or the Group) to drive its next phase of growth.
The establishment of CCH on April 1 reflects a culmination of CCPL’s achievements since its inception in 2012 in delivering on core strategic and financial objectives whilst providing innovative and sustainable financing solutions which complement mainstream markets.
CCH is envisaged to be an integrated alternative investment platform with complementary companies, offering origination, distribution and investment management capabilities in the real assets sector, and operating on a financially sustainable and commercial basis.
In addition to CCPL, which will be a 100% owned subsidiary of CCH, the Group will expand into new business lines, which includes the acquisition, warehousing and distribution of infrastructure loans (through Bayfront Infrastructure Management, which is 70% owned by CCH and 30% owned by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank), the provision of private credit and mezzanine financing solutions (through Keppel-Pierfront Private Credit Funds) and short-term working capital financing.
Through its growing presence, the Group aims to help address the substantial infrastructure financing gap in Asia, while closely aligning with Singapore’s economic growth initiatives in the infrastructure and maritime sectors.
Bayfront Infrastructure Management Pte Ltd (Bayfront), a platform designed for institutional investors to access Asia-Pacific infrastructure debt, officially commenced its operations on April 2. The establishment of Bayfront builds on the successful issuance of Asia’s first securitization of project finance and infrastructure loans through Bayfront Infrastructure Capital in July 2018.
The company seeks to acquire predominantly brownfield project and infrastructure loans from financial institutions, warehouse and manage them, with the objective of distributing securitized notes to institutional investors in the public markets. Bayfront will sponsor, structure, and manage such distribution issuances, as well as invest in the equity tranches or vertical slices of its securitization issuances to demonstrate alignment of interest with investors.
The execution of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aligns the understanding between Bayfront and banks for future collaboration on the take-out mechanism for infrastructure loans, including the key principles and criteria for potential transfers of infrastructure loans from each bank to Bayfront.
As part of the engagement strategy with financial institutions, Bayfront has signed MOUs with an initial list of 15 banks: ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Citi, DBS, DNB, ING, KFW IPEX-Bank, Mizuho, MUFG, Natixis, OCBC Bank, Santander, SMBC, Societe Generale, and Standard Chartered.
Bayfront has already commenced loan acquisitions from a number of these banks and will continue to expand its network of banks going forward.