Concerned Unitholders of the Bridging Finance Funds call for a vote to determine the best outcome for investors

TORONTO, Feb. 14, 2022 /CNW/ - A growing number of Unitholders of the Bridging Funds are calling for a separate investigation into the sales process of the BFI funds being conducted by the receiver (PwC). The group of Unitholders maintains that PwC is attempting to insert itself as an option for investors in a bid to wind down the funds while collecting exorbitant fees over 5 years and causing extensive losses to the portfolio.

The Unitholders say PwC has been unable to determine a Net Asset Value for the funds after 10 months, which suggests that an active Private Debt manager is in the best interest of all investors.

In webinars hosted for investors by PwC and Bennett Jones (the law firm for investors) on February 7th and 11^th, 2022, the Unitholders said it became very evident that BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager with multiple private debt funds, is the best option for a positive long-term investment. They contrast that to PwC's proposed 5-year wind down where they would be charging investors high fees, and where they have a material conflict of interest in recommending themselves as the best option.

It should be noted that PwC has no experience managing private debt and is not a registered portfolio manager. The Unitholders are concerned that PwC continually projects large portfolio losses while failing to work on recovering certain loans, including First Nation loans with an approximate value of over $250 million. The Unitholders say PwC has recklessly valued those loans at zero, despite the fact the loans have sufficient collateral. They insist there are many options to work with the First Nations to collect on the loans. In addition, the Unitholders say there has been no mention of the availability of $400 million in cash available to be distributed to Unitholders.

The Unitholders encourage all investors who are interested in optimizing their BFI investment to strongly consider demanding a Unitholder vote, to push for active management as opposed to a wind down where there is no recourse in terms of investor input once the decision has been made. They say the time to act is now before more losses are unnecessarily and unreasonably thrust upon Unitholders.

SOURCE Concerned Unitholders of Bridging Finance Inc.