Louis Bacon backs $750M Senior Loan Fund

Hedge fund manager Louis Bacon is showing his confidence in the mid-market lending sector by providing financial backing to a new firm who are raising $750 million debt fund aiming at the lower end of the middle market.

Louis Bacon is the successful founder of the Big Apple-based hedge fund Moore Capital Management LP.

Bacon has pledged an estimated $200 million to MC Credit which now plans to be restructured in order to reflect its new source of capital.

In May, MC Credit was established as the successor to Cyan Partners, Ashok Nayyar’s lower mid-market lender founded five years ago. Nayyar had previously been co-head of global leveraged finance at Morgan Stanley for two years and MD of leveraged finance group at Citigroup from 1997 to 2006.

Since it was started, Cyan Partners has conducted an estimated $900 million of loans. Nayyar is planning to transpose the same team with him to MC Credit and will now operate as an affiliate of Louis Bacon’s MooreCapital, although it remains independent in crediting decisions.

In order to promote its proprietary origination for its investments, MC Credit plans to syndicate its loans to hedge funds or banks. It will also work with some sponsors although this is thought not to be central to the firm’s approach.

MC Credit aims to focus its efforts on companies with between $15 million and $75 million in EBITDA, with a focus also on serving the North American market. The key strategy appears to be growth capital through senior secured loans and second-lien loans.

Louis Bacon is a legend of the hedge fund management world, with a net worth estimated at $1.3 billion, he ranks No. 347 on the Forbes 400 list as reported in March.

Bacon is also famous as one of the greenest billionaire and conservationist billionaires in the world. Bacon has several established conservation easements on his 90,000 acres of land in Trincherea Ranch in Colorado to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

His financial top stock picks for Moore Global Investments fund, as of the beginning of the year, include 7.6 million shares of the Powershares QQQ Trust, 5.1 million shares of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., 4.7 million shares in Citigroup, and 11.8 million shares of Bank of America Corp, according to 13F filings cited by InsiderMonkey.com.