Langdon Capital enters strategic partnership with US$1.2 billion AUM pan-Asian institutional investor seeking Western private credit and private equity investments
Langdon Capital has entered a strategic partnership with a US$1.2 billion AUM pan-Asian institutional investor whose capital comes from more than 600 of Asia’s wealthiest families. Its US$1.2 billion of assets under management is fully deployed in direct lending or direct investing deals. Its capacity for your transaction is effectively unlimited. Here is why, and what it means for any business raising £5 million to £100 million in the US, UK or Europe in either debt or equity.
The headline numbers
US$1.2 billion of assets under management, 100% deployed in live investments.
600+ limited partners, every one a family office representing some of the wealthiest families across pan-Asia.
Every layer of the capital stack: they invest in senior debt, mezzanine, preference shares, majority control equity and minority non-control equity.
Western focus: the US, the UK and Europe – these are the deals they find hard to access. They invest in Asian deals too, but they may have seen them before as they are close to the Asian private capital markets.
Direct line: we speak directly to the fund’s CEO and his investment team. Your transaction gets seen quickly by the fund’s top decision makers.
Fully invested, yet effectively unlimited
A fully invested fund usually means a closed door. Not here.
The fund makes direct investments through a BVI fund vehicle on a deal-by-deal basis. Existing capital stays working in existing deals. When a new transaction is approved, the families that want exposure to it inject fresh capital into the BVI fund at completion. New deals are funded with new money.
So the real pool of capital is not the US$1.2 billion already invested. It is the combined wealth of more than 600 Asian family offices over and above that figure. For a business raising up to £100 million, that is effectively unlimited.
The lesson: headline AUM tells you how big a fund is. It does not tell you how much it can write for you. Before you pitch any investor, ask three questions. Where does the money come from? How much of it is genuinely available? What has to happen for it to be released? With a deal-by-deal investor, the answer to the last question is simple: a deal the families want to own or take credit risk on.
East meets West
Much of Asia’s family wealth was built within one or two generations and remains concentrated in home-market property, listed equities and the families’ own operating businesses. The next generation wants to diversify. Western private markets offer exactly that:
Hard-currency earnings in US dollars, sterling and euros.
Legal certainty: English and US law documents, enforceable security and well-tested courts.
Deep exit markets: trade buyers, private equity funds and public markets ready to buy what they back.
Deal flow they cannot see from Asia: the best Western private transactions are usually shown to Western funds first.
That last point is the gap. The appetite is there. The access is not. We close it.
What they want to back
The families’ appetite maps directly onto the three types of business we raise capital for:
Scale-ups with high revenue growth, solid market traction, significant capital already invested, defensible USPs and high scalability.
Buy-and-build platforms consolidating fragmented markets, with an identified pipeline of acquisition targets.
Mature, profitable businesses with £2 million to £20 million of EBITDA, funding acquisitions, growth, refinancing or shareholder exits.
One counterparty, the whole capital stack: a worked example
Most investors occupy one layer of the capital stack. Raising a full structure from them means three processes, three rounds of due diligence, three investment committees and an intercreditor agreement to bind them together. An investor that works across every layer can underwrite the entirety with one investment committee, not three.
Illustration: a UK buy-and-build platform with £8 million of EBITDA wants £40 million to acquire a competitor with £4 million of EBITDA, taking the group to £12 million.
Layer | Amount | Role in the structure | What the owner gives up |
Senior debt | £20m | Cheapest capital, secured and ranking first. c.1.7x combined EBITDA | Covenants only |
Mezzanine | £8m | Bridges the gap between what senior debt lends and what the deal costs. Total debt c.2.3x | Tighter covenants, possibly warrants |
Preference shares | £7m | Equity capital with a priority return, ranking behind all debt | Reserved matters, no control |
Minority non-control equity | £5m | Growth capital sharing in the upside | A minority stake and board seat |
Total | £40m | One investor, one due diligence process, one set of documents | Founders keep control |
The lesson: start with the cheapest layer of capital the business can genuinely support, then move up the stack only as far as you must. Every step up costs more and asks for more control. An investor that sells every layer has no reason to push you into the wrong one.
What cross-border family capital needs to see
Each family opts in individually, often from several thousand miles away. Your transaction has to sell itself on paper before serious interest. Make it easy for them:
A precise ask: how much, which layer and exactly what it will be spent on.
Audited accounts and a defensible forecast: numbers that survive line-by-line scrutiny from a team that cannot visit your site next week.
Downside protection: security, strong cash conversion, or significant capital already invested by others.
Institutional reporting: monthly management accounts and KPIs a remote investor can track without chasing.
A clear hard-currency exit: who buys the business, or refinances the investor, and when.
A ready data room: open within days, not months.
How we take your transaction to them
Underwrite first. We only take on high-quality transactions we believe the families will want to see. That protects our relationships and your time.
Teaser. An anonymised summary goes directly to the CEO and his investment team.
NDA. Once they are interested, an NDA is signed for the full deal and the data pack, including information memorandum and financial model, is released.
Management Q&A. We bring the investor to the table. From there, it is your job to sell your transaction, and ours to solicit term sheets and keep it moving to completion.
We are seeking transactions
If you are raising debt or equity for a buy-and-build platform, a profitable business with £2 million to £20 million of EBITDA, or a high-growth scale-up in the US, UK or Europe, this is a pool of capital you will not reach on your own.
If you want to access effectively unlimited family office capital from Asia, mandate Langdon Capital.
Q&A: the key terms explained
What is AUM?
Assets under management: the total value of capital an investment firm manages on behalf of its investors.
What is an LP?
A limited partner: an investor that provides capital to a fund but leaves investment decisions to the fund manager, known as the general partner or GP.
What is a family office?
A private company that manages the investments and wealth of a single wealthy family, or of a small group of families in the case of a multi-family office.
What does fully deployed mean?
All of a fund’s available capital has been invested, leaving no uninvested balance.
What is dry powder?
Capital that investors have committed to a fund but that the fund has not yet invested.
What is a deal-by-deal fund?
A fund in which investors decide on each investment individually and provide capital only when they choose to back a specific deal. It is sometimes called a pledge fund.
What is a BVI fund?
A fund vehicle established in the British Virgin Islands, a jurisdiction widely used for international investment structures.
What is a direct investment?
An investment made straight into a company, rather than indirectly through another fund.
What is the capital stack?
The layers of finance that fund a business, ranked by who is repaid first. Debt sits at the top and equity at the bottom. The lower the layer, the higher the risk and the expected return.
What is senior debt?
A loan that ranks first for repayment and is usually secured on the company’s assets. It is the cheapest form of capital because it carries the least risk.
What is mezzanine finance?
Debt that ranks behind senior debt but ahead of equity. It costs more than senior debt and sometimes includes a share of the upside through warrants.
What are warrants?
Rights that allow a lender or investor to buy shares in the company at a fixed price in the future.
What are preference shares?
Shares that rank ahead of ordinary shares for dividends and repayment, often with a fixed return and limited or no voting rights.
What is majority control equity?
An equity investment giving the investor more than half of the voting shares, and therefore control of the business.
What is minority non-control equity?
An equity investment of less than half of the shares, where the investor does not control the business but usually has protections such as a board seat and veto rights over major decisions.
What are reserved matters?
Key decisions, such as selling the business or taking on new debt, that cannot be made without an investor’s consent.
What are covenants?
Financial tests and undertakings in a loan agreement that a borrower must meet, such as a maximum leverage ratio.
What is leverage?
The amount of debt relative to earnings, usually expressed as a multiple of EBITDA.
What is an intercreditor agreement?
A contract between lenders at different layers of the capital stack setting out who is repaid first and who can take enforcement action if things go wrong.
What is EBITDA?
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. It is the most widely used measure of operating profit and the basis for most valuations and lending decisions.
What is cash conversion?
The proportion of a business’s EBITDA that turns into actual cash.
What is a buy-and-build?
A strategy in which a platform business acquires smaller companies in the same or related markets to build a larger, more valuable group.
What is a scale-up?
A company that has proven its product and market and is now growing revenue rapidly, typically after raising significant capital.
What is a USP?
A unique selling point: the feature that sets a business apart from its competitors and is hard to copy.
What is hard currency?
A stable, globally traded currency such as the US dollar, sterling or the euro.
What is a mandate?
A formal appointment, usually under an engagement letter, authorising a firm to raise capital on a company’s behalf.
What is a teaser?
A short, anonymised summary of an investment opportunity sent to investors to gauge interest before confidential information is shared.
What is an NDA?
A non-disclosure agreement: a contract under which the recipient agrees to keep the company’s information confidential.
What is a data room?
A secure online folder containing the documents investors need for due diligence.
What is due diligence?
The investigation an investor carries out into a business’s finances, legal position, commercial prospects and management before committing capital.
What is an exit?
The way an investor realises its investment, for example through a sale of the business, a refinancing or a stock market listing.
Enquiries
For further information, please contact info@langdoncap.com
About the author
Sabbir Rahman is Managing Director of Langdon Capital. He has previously held roles at Morgan Stanley, Lazard and Deutsche Bank. He has over £200 billion of execution experience in debt, equity, M&A and derivatives transactions with global corporates, private equity funds and financial sponsor groups.
About Langdon Capital
Langdon Capital raises £5 million to £100 million in debt and equity for scale-ups, buy-and-build platforms and businesses with EBITDA between £2 million and £20 million from private credit funds, banks, private equity firms, special situations funds, family offices, venture capital funds, corporate VCs and venture debt funds. We raise capital to fund acquisitions, growth and turnaround situations. We hold direct relationships with key decision makers at global multi-billion £/$/€ AUM institutional investors, including CIOs, partners, MDs, strategy leads, fund founders and fund principals, and provide our clients with this direct market access.
contact info@langdoncap.com | visit www.langdoncap.com
This is not financial advice or any offer, invitation or inducement to sell or provide financial products or services or to engage in any form of investment activity.
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