Welcome to the December edition of In the Know, Baker McKenzie's Leveraged Finance newsletter, which provides insights into significant trends and key legal issues impacting participants in leveraged finance and high-yield markets across Asia and globally.
In this edition, we explore the fund finance market, which is rapidly expanding and providing investment funds with a range of fund level financing solutions, some of which may be complementary and relevant to the leveraged finance market, and share key takeaways from the 7th Annual Asia Pacific Fund Finance Symposium, hosted by the Fund Finance Association in Hong Kong in November.
Key takeaways
The global fund finance market is growing rapidly, with estimates suggesting that the market will grow to over USD 2.5 trillion by 2030, from USD 1.2 trillion in 2024. While subscription credit facilities have historically dominated the market, fund managers are increasingly demanding a wider range of fund finance solutions to manage liquidity, optimize portfolio performance and navigate a challenging exit environment. In response, the fund finance market has developed a range of products - most notably net asset value (NAV) facilities, hybrid facilities and general partner (GP) and management fee facilities - to meet this demand and the wider liquidity needs of GPs and investment fund managers.
The outlook for Asia’s fund finance market in 2026 is positive with both the market and the products offered by lenders expected to continue evolving to meet the increasingly complex needs of fund managers. In particular, the heightened demand for NAV facilities seen in 2025 is anticipated to persist alongside greater diversification of investor bases and an increased emphasis on credit ratings.