The folks at Third Avenue [profile] tried to rescue their now-infamous Focused Credit Fund more than a year before its ultimate demise.

David Barse Third Avenue Management Former Chief Executive Officer

Mary Childs of the Financial Times offers more insight into what went down at the value mutual fund shop. She also provides an update on New York City-based Third Avenue's current situation; its AUM has fallen by more than $1 billion so far in 2016, to about $5 billion.

Last month the WSJ reported that Third Avenue CEO David Barse pitched his team on selling Focused Credit assets to Fortress Investment Group. The Third Avenue team rejected the idea and showed Barse the door.

Now the FT reports that, per unnamed sources, as far back as fall 2014 Third Avenue folk were already trying to figure out how handle Focused Credit's liquidity issues. They reportedly tried to raise money in BDC structure, talking with Northstar Asset Management and UBS. The Third Avenue folks even tried chatting with American Realty Capital in October 2014, though those preliminary talks fell through in November 2014 when American Realty revealed accounting issues. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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