Ranger Direct legal costs push down November NAV
Ranger Direct Lending has said that legal expenses related to its ongoing arbitration with its Princeton holding pushed its net asset value (NAV) return down by 0.2 per cent in November, as talks continue into the new year.
The alternative finance investment trust, which backs secured business loans mainly in the US, has an investment in Princeton giving it exposure to direct lending platform Argon Credit, which went bankrupt in December.
Ranger Direct Lending is embroiled in an ongoing legal dispute over Princeton’s level of exposure to Argon. A four-day meeting is set to start on 18 January after talks in November overran.
Read more: Increasing defaults push down Ranger Direct returns
“Given the continuation of the arbitration proceedings, the company has elected that starting in November 2017, any income that is accrued by Princeton, will be added to Princeton’s loss reserve,” said Ranger Direct Lending in a monthly update late on Friday.
“This is a temporary action until the arbitration proceedings have concluded.”
The fund reported a NAV return of 0.2 per cent during November, improving on the 8.32 per cent loss in October.
RDL has been hit by underperformance in its peer-to-peer platform holdings as well as its ongoing Princeton legal dispute, and said in a stock market announcement last November that it is looking at new partners to assist the current management.
It is currently trading at a discount to NAV of 28.2 per cent.