Pengana still seeking LIC capital

Pengana Capital is yet to reach the $30 million cut-off for its scheduled mid-month listed investment company launch - Pengana Managers - despite the passing of its deadline for pledges on Tuesday.

The group, which had hoped to raise $100 million from investors when it flagged the product earlier this year, blames the difficulty it has experienced on a collapse in the LIC initial public offering market.

According to Pengana Capital head of hedge funds, Damien Hatfield the group is “agonizingly close” to reaching the $30 million minimum level and will now ask those investors already allocating monies to the fund to “put in a few extra dollars”.

“The bulk of the money we have received has come from high net worth individuals with little money coming by way of the broking community, which we were expecting at least $10 million from,” Hatfield says.

Hatfield is unable provide a definitive answer on whether Pengana Managers, which is scheduled to list on June 16, will still be launched but says it’s unlikely to be pulled at this stage.

The plight of Pengana was mirrored last month when Private Portfolio Managers (PPM) shelved its scheduled launch of its listed investment company - PPM Investments - blaming market saturation and growing negative investor sentiment towards LICs.

PPM director Hugh MacNally said at the time the scheduled launch would be shelved for up to a year as the market, which he says has been flooded, is no longer as receptive to LICs as it was earlier in the year.

“The pool for LICs was not that deep and I think the first dozen or so cleared it out,” MacNally said.