Fenway cancels Prudential restructuring offer – exclusive

Fenway Partners has pulled an offer in which Prudential Capital Group would buy limited partners’ stakes in its 1998- and 2006-vintage funds because investors were unhappy with the pricing, Secondaries Investor has learned.

In mid-June, New York-headquartered Fenway cancelled an LP vote on Prudential’s proposal to acquire their stakes in a transaction advised by Moelis, according to two sources familiar with the deal.

Another source said Fenway is still in talks with Prudential regarding a new process.

Chicago-headquartered Prudential, which is the private placement investment arm of insurance giant Prudential Financial, had offered to buy LPs’ stakes in the $1 billion Fenway Partners Capital Fund II at a 60 percent discount to net asset value as of 31 December and a 20 percent discount on the clawback owed to LPs in the fund, as Secondaries Investor reported in May.

In the $702 million Fenway Partners Capital Fund III, LPs could sell their stakes at a 35 percent discount to the same valuation date.

“A lot of LPs were not satisfied with the proposal because of the heavy discount to NAV that accompanied it,” an LP in one of the funds told Secondaries Investor.

This is the second restructuring attempt for the two Fenway funds. In 2015 London-based Nova Capital Management emerged as one of the four final bidders in the process also run by Moelis, as Secondaries Investor reported at the time.

Fenway, Prudential and Moelis declined to comment.