Sector developments and company hires

Acquisition
Pretium Partners has acquired the investment management business of Latigo Partners. Latigo co-founders David Ford and David Sabath are joining Pretium as senior mds, members of the executive committee and remain as portfolio managers of Latigo’s investment vehicles. Additional investment professionals, as well as several key operational members of the Latigo team are also joining Pretium. Founded in 2005, Latigo is a fund manager that specialises in event-driven investment opportunities. The team will be joining Pretium’s corporate and structured credit business, which currently manages seven CLOs and several investment vehicles for structured credit opportunities.

Ibor task force formed
In anticipation of the transition from Libor as a universal benchmark interest rate in 2021 and the effort to find robust rates to replace it, Mayer Brown has launched a dedicated global multidisciplinary task force to provide comprehensive and coordinated advice on the latest market developments and most significant issues facing banks, companies and investors. The firm’s Ibor Transition Task Force is comprised of more than 80 lawyers across its three regions – Asia, Europe and the Americas – and across eight practice areas.

Litigation ABS prepped
Forbes Ventures’ UK subsidiary Forbes Ventures Investment Management (FVIM) has established a Securitisation Cell Company (SCC) in Malta. The purpose of the SCC is to facilitate the securitisation of litigation funding assets, primarily through the acquisition of litigation funding loans that have been issued in the UK. FVIM’s revenue under the arrangements will be correlated to the volume of securitisation and the price at which it can acquire the assets. Additionally, the company has engaged ME Group Holdings, a UK-based litigation funding and legaltech specialist, to supply distributed ledger technology to Forbes and FVIM to facilitate the administration of the securitised litigation funding assets. Under the terms of this agreement, ME Group will also be engaged to manage and administer the DLT platform. The first securitisation of litigation funding via the SCC is expected to be completed within approximately six months.