Invesco closes Mortgage Recovery Fund on $1.46bn

Atlanta-based investment manager Invesco has closed its $1.46 billion Mortgage Recovery Fund, part of the US Treasury department’s PPIP initiative.

The commitments to the fund, which will invest in mortgage loans and securities, came primarily from institutional advisors including $100 million from the New York State Common Retirement Fund.

The vehicle is being managed by Invesco’s Invesco Fixed Income, Invesco Real Estate and WL Ross & Co divisions. Invesco purchased the latter four years ago.

By partnering with private investment firms and providing a stimulus to the distressed market, the PPIP effectively resurrected the US mortgage-related securities business in 2009, Invesco senior managing director Mark Armour said in a statement.

PPIP, which was designed to allow banks and other financial institutions to re-deploy capital and extend credit to both households and businesses, selected Invesco and eight other managers to take part in the PPIP programme in August 2009.

In addition to Invesco, other firms chosen included Oaktree, Angelo Gordon and GE, AllianceBernstein and sub-advisors Greenfield Partners and Rialto Capital Management, BlackRock, RLJ Western Asset Management, Wellington Management and The TCW Group.

Managers were initially given 12 weeks to raise a minimum of $500 million. One manager, TCW, was forced to quit the programme and liquidate its $500 million fund in January following the departure of its former chief investment officer Jeffrey Gundlach.