US asset manager Yieldpoint claims it is still owed around US$5mn by a commodity trade finance fund founded by Kimura Capital, despite a court dismissing its original claim last year.
The Yieldpoint Stable Value Fund says in a claim filed in December that the Quintar Kimura Special Credit Fund Limited must pay it “fair market value” for a participation it bought in the Chilean copper mine MTV, which folded without repaying a loan to Kimura. Kimura Capital entered voluntary administration in December last year.
When Yieldpoint agreed to the participation in 2021, the fund was known as the Kimura Commodity Trade Finance Fund and was managed by Kimura. In December 2023 Kimura announced it had formed a joint venture with Hong Kong’s Quintar Capital, which subsequently assumed the role of fund manager.
Yieldpoint sued the fund after the copper mine failed, arguing it was entitled to full repayment of its participation at maturity. A London court sided with Yieldpoint, basing its decision on the inclusion in the contract of a maturity date, which a judge said differentiated the contract from a conventional sub-participation risk agreement.
But the ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal in June 2024, which found the agreement was a standard participation deal, meaning Yieldpoint also shouldered part of the default risk and could not reclaim its entire principal.
Yieldpoint’s new suit does not challenge that decision, but instead argues that during the appeal hearing Kimura accepted that in the event of a default, it was obliged to pay Yieldpoint “fair market value” for its participation in the mine loan.
The asset manager says the fund has not engaged with its requests to place a value on the participation, but claims that in the absence of documentation or expert evidence, the figure is likely to be “in excess” of US$5mn.
Following its appeal defeat last year, Yieldpoint asked the court to issue an order that it is entitled to market-value payment for the participation due to the default. However, the judges rejected the request because Yieldpoint had not made that argument during the court proceedings.
Yieldpoint declined to comment. Quintar did not respond to messages from GTR seeking comment.
Kimura Capital closed the commodity trade finance fund late last year and reportedly returned funds to investors before entering liquidation.
Additional reporting by Felix Thompson.
