Ashurst advises Polus and Mediobanca on ADIA investment for Special Situations Strategy

Global law firm Ashurst has advised Polus Capital Management ('Polus') and its parent company Mediobanca on a capital commitment for Polus's Special Situations strategy from a wholly owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority ('ADIA'). Following the commitment, Polus' Special Situations strategy has approximately US$5 billion of assets under management.

Polus' Special Situations strategy focuses primarily on secondary investments in bonds and loans as part of opportunistic, stressed or distressed situations arising from idiosyncratic or cyclically driven dislocations to corporate enterprise values or hard asset values. Polus' Special Situations team has been working together for over ten years, during which time it has developed a differentiated and proven track record.

The Ashurst team was led by partner and Head of Ashurst's UK Financial Services M&A team Gavin Weir, supported by senior associate Nick Lever and associate Vienna Linley. Investment funds partner Nicola Hopkins and senior associate Peter Mallon, tax partners Nicholas Gardner and Sharon Kim and associate Luis de Freitas also advised.

Commenting on the transaction Gavin said: “We are delighted to support Polus and Mediobanca on this important transaction. Over the last 18 months we have seen a number of similar strategic investments by large sovereign wealth funds in the asset management space and we expect this trend to continue. Our team is ideally placed to advise on these transactions given the strength of our Financial Services and Investment Funds platform."