mCAPITAL launches debut fund for stressed and distressed debt opportunities in Europe and Asia

The European and Asian Special Situations Fund, which has received approval from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, expects to start the fundraising process at the end of the month and has a target of $500m.

mCAPITAL is the investment management company set up by Mark Devonshire, the former co-head of the Principal Credit Group (PCG), an independent $3bn proprietary investment unit at Merrill Lynch.

The fund will focus on stressed, distressed, recovery and development capital in Europe and Asia, with an objective of providing 15+ per cent annualised returns over the economic cycle. The mCAPITAL team will be made up of 11 experienced investment professionals based in Hong Kong and London.

Investments will be split with roughly 60 per cent in Asia (including the Pacific Rim) and 40 per cent Europe.

Devonshire has 22 years’ experience in global alternative asset markets, most recently at Merrill Lynch, where he established the European and Asian operations of PCG. Prior to that, he established and managed money for a number of banks, including Standard Bank, successfully investing for them through the economic crises of the past two decades, including the 1987 stock market crash, the 1990 high yield collapse, the Asian crisis of 1997, the Russian default of 1998 and the bursting of the dotcom bubble of 2000 and the subsequent credit crisis of 2001.

“This is another milestone in the launch of mCAPITAL and especially the European and Asian Special Situations Fund. Speaking for the mCAPITAL team, we’re very pleased to have the approval of the SFC,” said Devonshire. “In addition, the total capital that we have soft circled for the fund is a vote of confidence from investors in the quality and experience of the team, their belief in our immediate strategy of investing in stressed and distressed assets and that this is the right time.”

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