West Ham diector in joint venture for $5 billion fund

West Ham director and ten per cent shareholder Albert ‘Tripp’ Smith has created a joint venture with General Atlantic and his own company which is called  Iron Park Capital Partners LP to roll out a more than $5 billion fund that will provide structured-equity and debt capital to companies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic

Through the new partnership, known as Atlantic Park they have started discussions with potential investors.

The capital commitments reportedly will be funnelled to distressed companies in the consumer, healthcare, financial service and technology sectors over the next two years.

While there is no current suggestion that his new fund will look to invest in any sports teams let alone West Ham United speculation will undoubtedly follow with rumours circulating of an American consortium plotting a future bid for the club.

Smith is doing very well going it alone with Iron Park Capital Partners LP delivering a 57.1% return to his investors after fees for his ‘Winter is Coming’ fund named after the Game of Thornes TV show. Iron Park then raised another $1 billion for a second fund dubbed WIN, for “Winter is Now,” that will focus on distressed-credit opportunities the firm expects to emerge from the pandemic.

In 2017, the former senior managing director of Blackstone and co-founder of the asset management group GSO Capital Partners,  become a minority owner of  West Ham acquiring the 10 per cent stake from CB Holding, an Icelandic group that gained the holding after the collapse of Iceland’s Stramur Investment Bank in 2009.

Smith is thought to have paid £9.5m for those shares investing another £9.5m interest-free to the club repayable on sale of the club.