NOT FOR RELEASE, DISTRIBUTION OR PUBLICATION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES

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Guernsey, 19 December 2014 - Volta Finance Limited (the "Company" or "Volta Finance" or "Volta") has published its monthly report. The full report is attached to this release and is available on Volta Finance Limited's financial website (www.voltafinance.com).

Gross Asset Value

  At 28.11.14 At 31.10.14
Gross Asset Value (GAV / € million) 290.2 285.4
GAV per share (€) 7.95 7.82

At the end of November 2014, the Gross Asset Value* (the "GAV") of Volta Finance Limited (the "Company", "Volta Finance" or "Volta") was €290.2 m or €7.95 per share, an increase of €0.13 per share from the end of October 2014.

This brings the performance for the first 11 months of 2014 to +12.1% including the April dividend payment.

It is worth noting that, at the date of publishing this report, Volta shares trade post dividend payment. A post-dividend-payment GAV would have been €7.65 per share (€30 cents dividend was paid the 9th of December).

The November mark-to-market variations* of Volta's asset classes were: 0.0% for Synthetic Corporate Credit deals, -0.1% for CLO Equity tranches; +0.8% for CLO Debt tranches, +5.6% for Cash Corporate Credit deals and +0.7% for ABS. The positive performance of Volta in November is in line with the tightening of credit market spreads during the month. However it should be noticed that credit markets suffered during the first 3 weeks of December.

Volta's assets generated the equivalent of €1.9m cash flows in November 2014 (non-Euro amounts converted to Euro using end-of-month cross currency rates and excluding principal payments from debt assets) bringing the total cash generated during the last six months to €15.6m.

In November, Volta made two investments (a BB tranche of a new USD CLO and a European CLO Warehouse) for the equivalent of €11.5m (€7.125m was settled in relation with the new warehouse from a total commitment of €19m). Under standard assumptions the CLO debt tranche is expected to have an IRR close to 9%, the warehouse is expected to have an IRR between 13 and 17%. During the month, Volta sold 4 debt tranches of CLO (2 in USD, 2 in Euro) for the equivalent of €12.8m. These asset were sold with projected IRR near to 4%.

At the end of November, Volta held €13.0m in cash. Taking  account of unsettled commitments as well as the dividend payment to be made in December, Volta can be considered as being fully invested as of the end of November.

MARKET ENVIRONMENT

In November 2014, credit market spreads tightened both in Europe and in the US :  the 5 year iTraxx European Main index and 5 year iTraxx European Crossover Index (series 22) spreads went respectively from 65 and 354 bps at the end of October 2014 to 58 and 319 bps at the end of November 2014. In the US, in the same vein, the 5y CDX main index (series 23) tightened from 64 to 61 bps.  According to the CSFB Leverage Loan Index, the average price for US liquid first lien loans was as well increasing from 97.61% at the end of October 2014 to 97.78% at the end of November 2014. In Europe, the price of the S&P European Leveraged Loan Index increased from 97.35% to   97.51%. **

During the first 3 weeks of December all the spread compression/price increase detailed above reverted and at the time of writing this report spread are wider than what they were at the end of October.

VOLTA FINANCE PORTFOLIO

In November 2014, no particular event materially impacted any of Volta's assets.

Regarding the CLO warehouse Volta invested in during June, it is worth mentioning that the CLO priced the 18th of December with an expected closing the 21st of January.

However, at a point in time at which most of people investing in credit markets are questioning their exposure to the Oil and Gas sub-sectors it worth mentioning the following points :

  • Energy sector (most of it is Oil&Gas producers or servicers) represents 4 to 4.5% of the loan market outstanding (depending on which index you looked at). The same sector represents 13 to 15% of the High Yield Bond market;
  • Looking through all the USD CLO positions owned by Volta, the underlying exposures to Oil&Gas is in the area of 2.4%, considering the latest trustee reports available at the end  of November.

                   
When purchasing CLO tranches for Volta we do expect default to occur in the underlying loan portfolios. Considering the weight of the Oil&Gas sub-sector in the CLOs held by Volta an increase of the default rate for this sub-sector shouldn't have direct material consequences.

We continue to see opportunities in several structured credit sectors including mezzanine or equity tranches of CLOs, RMBS tranches as well as tranches of Cash or Synthetic Corporate Credit portfolios.

* "Mark-to-market variation" is calculated as the Dietz-performance of the assets in each bucket, taking into account the Mark-to-Market of the assets at month-end, payments received from the assets over the period, and ignoring changes in cross currency rates Nevertheless, some residual currency effects could impact the aggregate value of the portfolio when aggregating each bucket.
** Index data source: Markit, Bloomberg.

(Full monthly report in attachment or on www.voltafinance.com)

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ABOUT VOLTA FINANCE LIMITED

Volta Finance Limited is incorporated in Guernsey under The Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008 (as amended) and listed on NYSE Euronext Amsterdam. Its investment objectives are to preserve capital and to provide a stable stream of income to its shareholders through dividends. For this purpose, it pursues a multi-asset investment strategy targeting various underlying assets. The assets that the Company may invest in either directly or indirectly include, but are not limited to: corporate credits; sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt; residential mortgage loans; automobile loans. Volta Finance Limited's basic approach to its underlying assets is through vehicles and arrangements that provide leveraged exposure to some of those underlying assets.

Volta Finance Limited has appointed AXA Investment Managers Paris an investment management company with a division specialised in structured credit, for the investment management of all its assets.

ABOUT AXA INVESTMENT MANAGERS

AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) is a multi-expert asset management company within the AXA Group, a global leader in financial protection and wealth management. AXA IM is one of the largest European-based asset managers with €607 billion in assets under management as of the end of September 2014. AXA IM employs approximately 2,300 people around the world and operates out of 21 countries.

CONTACTS

Company Secretary
Sanne Group (Guernsey) Limited
voltafinance@sannegroup.com
+44 (0) 1481 739810

Portfolio Administrator
Sanne Group (Guernsey) Limited
voltafinance@sannegroup.com

For the Investment Manager
AXA Investment Managers Paris
Serge Demay
serge.demay@axa-im.com
+33 (0) 1 44 45 84 47

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This press release is for information only and does not constitute an invitation or inducement to acquire shares in Volta Finance. Its circulation may be prohibited in certain jurisdictions and no recipient may circulate copies of this document in breach of such limitations or restrictions.

This document is not an offer for sale of the securities referred to herein in the United States or to persons who are "U.S. persons" for purposes of Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or otherwise in circumstances where such offer would be restricted by applicable law.  Such securities may not be sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration from the Securities Act.  The company does not intend to register any portion of the offer of such securities in the United States or to conduct a public offering of such securities in the United States.

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This communication is only being distributed to and is only directed at (i) persons who are outside the United Kingdom or (ii) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order") or (iii) high net worth companies, and other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons").  The securities referred to herein are only available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire such securities will be engaged in only with, relevant persons.  Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this document or any of its contents.

Past performance cannot be relied on as a guide to future performance.

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This press release contains statements that are, or may deemed to be, "forward-looking statements". These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms "believes", "anticipated", "expects", "intends", "is/are expected", "may", "will" or "should". They include the statements regarding the level of the dividend, the current market context and its impact on the long-term return of Volta's investments. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Volta Finance's actual results, portfolio composition and performance may differ materially from the impression created by the forward-looking statements. Volta Finance does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements.

Any target information is based on certain assumptions as to future events which may not prove to be realised. Due to the uncertainty surrounding these future events, the targets are not intended to be and should not be regarded as profits or earnings or any other type of forecasts. There can be no assurance that any of these targets will be achieved. In addition, no assurance can be given that the investment objective will be achieved.

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November Monthly Report



This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: Volta Finance Limited via Globenewswire

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