Franklin Square Capital Partners Launches New Global Credit Alternative
FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund gives investors access to global corporate debt
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 2, 2013, Franklin Square Capital Partners, a leading manager of alternative investment funds, announced the launch of its latest offering, FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund, an unlisted closed-end fund that invests primarily in global credit. The Fund seeks to generate an attractive total return, while also focusing on capital preservation, by investing in loans, bonds and other credit instruments of public and private companies, with a strong focus on the European and U.S. markets.
This marks the fourth fund launched by Franklin Square, which now manages more than $9 billion in assets. “Our goal at Franklin Square is to provide individual and smaller institutional investors with the same investment access and investor protections that larger institutions demand,” said Michael C. Forman, CEO of Franklin Square. “This new fund adds to our stable of endowment-style funds and provides our investors access to what we expect will be high-performing global opportunities.”
Among the Fund’s key investment strategies, FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund will employ an event-driven approach, focusing on companies that it believes are undervalued by the market. The Fund intends to take advantage of dislocations that arise in the credit markets resulting from impending corporate events such as mergers, acquisitions or corporate reorganizations. These events can create attractive investment opportunities when the view of the Fund’s managers differs from that of the general market.
FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund is sub-advised by GSO Capital Partners LP, the credit platform of Blackstone. Franklin Square and GSO / Blackstone have partnered on three other funds. Franklin Square selected GSO as the sub-adviser for its fourth fund in great part because of GSO’s successful track record in carrying out similar global, event-driven investment strategies for select institutional investors. By focusing on these investment opportunities across GSO / Blackstone’s global platform, FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund looks to create a portfolio that can generate high potential returns.
“We don’t rely on the market to drive the value of a security,” explained Doug Ostrover, Senior Managing Director of Blackstone and co-founder of GSO, who serves as lead portfolio manager for FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund. “We take an independent and proactive approach, leveraging our global reach to identify events that will unlock value for companies and our investors.”
“We see strong investment opportunities in global credit as long as you have the institutional know-how to identify the right deals and the optimal fund structure to take advantage of them,” added Mr. Forman. “With FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund, we are giving investors the ability to diversify into global corporate credit, which has generally outperformed global equities over the past five years and demonstrates low correlation to traditional fixed income investments.”
About Franklin Square
Franklin Square is a leading manager of alternative investment funds designed to enhance investors’ portfolios by providing access to asset classes, strategies and asset managers that typically have been available to only the largest institutional investors. The firm’s funds offer “endowment-style” investment strategies that help construct diversified portfolios and manage risk. Franklin Square strives not only to maximize investment returns but also to set the industry standard for best practices by focusing on transparency, investor protection and education for investment professionals and their clients.
Founded in Philadelphia in 2007, Franklin Square quickly established itself as a leader in the world of alternative investments by introducing innovative credit-based income funds, including the industry’s first non-traded BDC. The firm currently manages three funds with over $9 billion* in assets. Forbes Magazine ranked Franklin Square 13th on its 2013 list of America’s Most Promising Companies. Franklin Square distributes its funds through its affiliated broker-dealer, FS2 Capital Partners, LLC. For more information, please visit www.franklinsquare.com.
*Assets under management as of September 30, 2013.
About FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund
FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund (the “Fund”) is an unlisted closed-end fund and is the fourth investment fund sponsored by Franklin Square. The Fund focuses on investing primarily in a global portfolio of secured and unsecured floating and fixed rate loans, bonds and other types of credit instruments. Its primary investment objective is to generate an attractive total return consisting of a high level of current income and capital appreciation, with a secondary objective of capital preservation. FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund is managed by FS Global Advisor, LLC, an affiliate of Franklin Square, and is sub-advised by GSO. GSO, with approximately $63.3 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2013, is the credit platform of Blackstone. For more information, please visit www.fsgcofund.com.
Investments in the Fund will be made through two funds, FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund—A and FS Global Credit Opportunities Fund—D (together, the “Companies”), which will invest substantially all of the net proceeds from their public offerings in common shares of beneficial interest of the Fund. The Fund is a separate non-diversified, closed-end management investment company that will carry out the investment strategies generally described above.
About GSO Capital Partners LP
Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment and advisory firms. Blackstone seeks to create positive economic impact and long-term value for its investors, the companies it invests in, the companies it advises and the broader global economy. The firm does this through the commitment of its extraordinary people and flexible capital. GSO Capital Partners LP is the global credit platform of Blackstone. GSO, together with its affiliates, has approximately $63 billion of assets currently under management and is one of the largest credit-focused alternative managers in the world and a major participant in the leveraged finance marketplace. GSO seeks to generate superior risk-adjusted returns in its credit business by investing in a broad array of strategies including mezzanine, distressed investing leveraged loans and other special situation strategies. Blackstone’s alternative asset management businesses include investment vehicles focused on private equity, hedge fund solutions, secondary funds, and multi asset class exposures falling outside of other funds’ mandates. Blackstone also provides various financial advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement services. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow us on Twitter @Blackstone.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements, including statements with regard to the future performance of the Fund and the Companies. Words such as “believes,” “expects,” “projects” and “future” or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to the inherent uncertainties in predicting future results and conditions. Certain factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these forward-looking statements, and some of these factors are enumerated in the filings the Fund and the Companies make with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Fund and the Companies do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
CONTACT:
Dana Taormina
JCPR
973-850-7305
dtaormina@jcprinc.com
SOURCE:
Franklin Square Capital Partners