Middle market loans - Emporia

Emporia offers investors access to pools composed predominantly of senior secured middle market loans and, to a lesser extent, broadly syndicated senior secured loans and second lien loans. Emporia also offers investors proprietary access to our direct origination business which offers financing to private equity groups (Emporia Loan Origination).

The middle market is a specialized sector which offers attractive risk-adjusted returns that are not widely available to most institutional investors. Cohen & Company’s experience in the middle market allows us to take advantage of the market’s unique opportunities, which include:

• Higher upfront fees and spreads, when compared to similarly traded loans,
• Modestly lower leverage than broadly syndicated loans,
• Historically higher recovery rates for defaulted loans,
• Smaller bank groups with active lender involvement, and
• Limited overlap with other existing CDO collateral.

Advantages of Emporia include:

• Access to proprietary middle market loan assets
• Low correlation with other asset classes (S&P 500)
• Negligible exposure to "covenant lite" loans (less than 2.5%)
• Structured to withstand multiples of historical default rates while offering significant risk-adjusted returns
• Fee structure aligns the interests of the collateral manager with those of investors
• Proactive portfolio management by a team with deep experience and extensive ties to the agent bank community