Ranger Direct Lending Fund is preparing to wind down operations due to struggling returns and a dust up with a large shareholder.
In an announcement today, Christopher Waldron, Chairman, and Director Matthew Mulford have both confirmed that they will resign immediately, both citing the fact the Fund will be shut down.
On April 11th, Oaktree Capital Managment, a significant shareholder of Ranger, published an open letter to shareholders.
The letter stated;
“Oaktree believes that, now more than ever, new directors are needed to maximize shareholder value in the wind-down. Even the Board has conceded that it will need to appoint additional independent non-executive Directors to oversee the wind-down “following consultation with shareholders”. We urge the Board to put the interest of shareholders first and do the right thing by immediately entering into discussion with Oaktree to add Oaktree’s nominees instead of continuing with a costly, distracting and misguided effort to block highly-qualified, shareholder-supported nominees.”
Originally, Ares Capital Management was supposed to be taking over the investment management role. But as events shifted, Ares backed out and Oaktree’s push to wind down the Fund won the day.
Ranger Direct Lending Fund’s objective was to seek to provide shareholders with an attractive return by acquiring a portfolio of debt obligations originated by direct lending platforms. These lending platforms provided “an attractive and growing asset class that have the potential to provide higher returns for investors than other fixed income products,” according to Ranger.
In 2017, Ranger was hit by investments in Argon – which had entered bankruptcy proceedings.
There will be a shareholder vote tomorrow (June 19th) where new directors will be voted on as part of the wind down process.
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