Arena Investors and Diamond Creek Capital Announce a $100M Joint Venture

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Feb 10, 2021, 13:31 ET

NEW YORK, Feb. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Arena Investors, LP ("Arena"), a $2.2 billion institutional asset manager, and Diamond Creek Capital, a specialty lending firm focused on the lower middle-market, today announced that they have established a joint venture with initial capacity to deploy up to $100 million of new loans to privately held companies.

As part of the joint venture, Arena will add meaningful scale to Diamond Creek with new financial resources and access to its operating partner network and specialized industry expertise. The cooperative affiliation between the two firms will enable Diamond Creek to expand its offering of financing solutions ranging from secured non-bank senior debt to control equity and more. Through its partnership with Arena, Diamond Creek also plans to open a Las Vegas office as part of an expansion strategy to provide flexible capital alternatives to lower middle market companies throughout the state of Nevada and the Southwestern United States.

Thomas Harrison, Managing Partner of Diamond Creek, said: "It is a privilege to partner with Arena to expand our ability to deliver effective financing to entrepreneurs and businesses across industries. I have known the team at Arena for many years and am confident they are the ideal partners for us in this next step in the evolution of our business."

"Diamond Creek has a proven track record of identifying fantastic privately held companies by applying an entrepreneurial and diligence-driven approach," said Scott Gold, Managing Director, Head of Corporate Private Credit‎ of Arena Investors. "We have known and respected Tom and his team for many years and welcome the opportunity to support them as they continue to make investments which drive revenue and job growth. We look forward to what the future holds as they grow Diamond Creek."

Diamond Creek leverages proprietary relationships in niche industries to offer capital to growth companies, which is a particularly attractive capability in today's market. Over the past fifteen years, Diamond Creek has successfully executed on its investment strategy of issuing senior loans to profitable, private, lower middle-market companies. The firm's investment and advisory teams, who have expertise in all facets of secured lending, have worked together for more than two decades. This enables them to draw on their experience and relationships to nimbly execute on their investment process, delivering fast, personalized service to borrowers and other market participants the firm engages with.

The Arena Joint Venture strategy seeks to partner with smaller investment funds with an outstanding track record and reputation to access more capital to expand their already successful strategy. This partnership is one of numerous joint ventures partners that have elected to align with Arena, and by doing so benefit by receiving new deal flow, expanding their capabilities, and ultimately managing more assets.

About Arena Investors

Arena Investors is an institutional asset manager, founded by Dan Zwirn in partnership with The Westaim Corporation (TSXV: WED). With $2.2 billion of committed assets under management as of January 1, 2021, Arena provides capital to entrepreneurs in special situations. The firm brings individuals with decades of experience, a track record of comfort with complexity, the ability to deliver within time constraints, and the flexibility to engage in transactions that cannot be addressed by banks and other conventional financial institutions. Arena Investors works to enable individuals, corporations, and asset owners to achieve their goals. Arena Investors' mandate is global, and also unconstrained in terms of asset class and industry.

About Diamond Creek

Diamond Creek Capital is a specialty finance company focusing on providing secured enterprise value / cash flow term loans to lower middle market companies with EBITDA of $1 million to $10 million. DCC addresses the financing needs of profitable lower middle-market companies whose borrowing needs fall just outside of traditional lenders' underwriting guidelines that are underserved by traditional banks and other lenders. More specifically, DCC offers flexible financing solutions including senior, unitranche and junior lien investments to a broad range of industries with a focus on debt investments ranging from $5 million to $50 million for companies with an enterprise value of greater than $10 million. DCC provides senior debt solutions primarily for recapitalizations, acquisitions and growth capital. Target industries include software, technology, manufacturing, consumer finance, business services and consumer products. The principals of DCC collectively have over 80 years of experience lending to lower middle-market companies with an aggregate principal loss history of less than 1%. DCC typically holds a first lien position against all assets and limits its exposure by lending low multiples of sustainable cash flow with strong secondary exit alternatives. DCC recently completed its 15^th year of profitable operations since inception (October 2005) with a demonstrated track record of success through both favorable and challenging economic environments.

Contacts

Arena Investor Contacts:
Parag Shah
[email protected]

Arena Media Contacts:
Lindsay Jablonski
[email protected]

SOURCE Arena Investors