MA Financial secures Australian first ‘co-lending’ deal with Humm

ASX-listed alternative asset manager and private creditor MA Financial will have access to up to $1 billion in commercial finance asset loans in a new forward flow arrangement with Humm Group.

The arrangement gives MA Financial’s private credit funds access to an up to $1 billion pipeline of “high quality, prime asset” commercial asset finance loans through Flexicommercial, Humm Group’s asset finance platform.

Under the terms of the deal, MA Financial’s managed funds will finance the assets along with an unnamed global bank, while Flexicommercial will maintain servicing and other loan management responsibilities.

According to MA Financial’s head of credit investments and lending, Frank Danieli, the new arrangement will give the private creditor access to an “attractive pipeline of prime asset finance deal flow, [will] diversify MA Financial’s private credit portfolio and [enable it to] participate in the growth of the commercial asset finance sector for our managed funds”.

The up to $1 billion loan pool, which includes an initial seed pool of $500 million in the initial term of the partnership, represents a significant portion of Flexicommercial’s origination volume, alongside its warehouse and term deal programs.

Danieli added: “Our new strategic partnership with Flexicommercial is an innovative financing strategy and an advancement for Australia’s private credit industry.

He said MA had recognised “the power of co-lending programs globally”, with the private creditor seeking to introduce these opportunities locally.

“We have identified asset financing as an attractive lending space for some time. The rise of the broker channel is creating more options for borrowers and a more level playing field for non-bank financiers to provide customers lending solutions.

“We like sectors where banks are ceding market share and are no longer the most efficient provider of capital. We think there are compelling risk-adjusted returns available in these market gaps”, which, he said, MA can capitalise on across its managed fund offering.

Flexicommerical chief executive Stuart Grimshaw, welcomed the new partnership as a “strategic opportunity that allows us to service our clients while diversifying our funding sources, creating capital flexibility between our warehouses, term programs and this strategic partnership, which is a ‘capital-lite’ structure”.