Federated Hermes Trade Finance Tender Fund: 38 Offers Since 2017

What the fund is, in one paragraph

Federated Hermes Project and Trade Finance Tender Fund is a registered closed-end fund, organized as a Delaware trust on June 30, 2016, that began operations on December 7, 2016 and took its first public investment on January 31, 2017. Federated Investment Management Company is the adviser and Federated Hermes (UK) LLP, an affiliate, runs the portfolio day to day. The fund lends in trade finance, export and import finance, supply chain financing and project finance, including to sovereign entities, and its prospectus says it expects about 75% or more of its assets to be in or exposed to emerging markets, with an average dollar-weighted maturity of not more than 24 months. It is not real estate and it is not an interval fund: shares are sold monthly at NAV, and the way out is a repurchase offer that the Board decides on, “generally quarterly.” The minimum is $100,000 for Institutional Shares and $50,000 for Service Shares, which are sold through advisers and brokers. This page is about the fund's liquidity record and ownership, which are what decide whether a new holder can get out; for the rules, see our census of tender-offer funds and what an interval fund is.

Thirty-eight offers since 2017

The fund files a Schedule TO-I when each offer opens and a final amendment with the result, usually the day the next offer opens, so a result is public 85 to 99 days after its offer began (our count across the 37 results). “Capital” is the figure the fund states for its outstanding capital on the reference date; “accepted” is the amount in the final amendment.

The sizing rule changed three times. The offer was 15% of net assets for the first two offers in 2017, 25% in October 2017, 15% again until January 2023, and 5% from August 2023 on. Before July 2021 the fund had $48 to $72 million, so the offer limits in the first group run from $7.25 million to $17.90 million. The full list follows. No final amendment mentions proration, but four of them show a filled cap, discussed below.

Read the fund's own words on what an offer is: the Board intends to provide “a limited degree of liquidity,” and the prospectus warns that the fund is likely to offer only a limited percentage of shares at the Board's discretion “(for example, 5-15% of the net asset value of the Fund).” If an offer is oversubscribed, the fund may accept additional shares under Rule 13e-4(f) or buy back only a pro rata share. The prospectus adds a backstop: if a holder has tendered shares and the fund has not repurchased all of them within three years of the valuation date, the fund will “be dissolved and liquidated.”

Four offers that were filled to the cent

Between April 2020 and April 2021 the fund was small: $64.2 million of capital in March 2020, $48.4 million in March 2021. In four of five consecutive offers the final amendment reports an amount accepted that equals the offer limit exactly.

A match to the cent is what a pro rata cutback produces. The final amendments do not disclose how much holders asked for, so we cannot say how many were cut back. We can say that the cap was reached four times in 2020 and 2021 and that none of the 20 offers since July 2021 has used more than 18.3% of its limit (July 2022; our arithmetic). The April 2021 offer was the last one on the old holder base (next section).

Who owns the fund

The prospectus and statement of additional information list every holder of 5% or more of the shares. The change between May 2021 and May 2022 is the fund's turning point: three holders that had 18.1% between them in May 2021 (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, a New Jersey health-care employers pension fund and Ariel Corporation) were no longer listed a year later, and the four holders then listed held 95.8% (our sums).

The record-holder counts are as of April 30, 2021, April 30, 2022, October 31, 2024, October 31, 2025 and April 30, 2026. At May 5, 2026 the four listed holders owned 91.72% of the Institutional Shares; the only holder of Service Shares was the adviser itself, with about 5,222 shares. Auto-Owners Insurance Company's position is 20,087,384 shares in every filing since May 2022, so it has neither added nor tendered in four years. The Michigan entity went from about 25.6 million shares to about 50.6 million over the same period, and Energy Insurance Mutual from 4.1 million to 18.4 million.

The prospectus has a risk factor for exactly this: “A significant percentage of the Fund's Shares may be owned or controlled by a large shareholder,” and the fund “can be subject to the potential for large scale inflows and outflows” from them. For a new $100,000 holder, the practical meaning is that the 5% offer is a shared pool. The October 2026 offer is about 5.37 million shares at the September 18 NAV (our arithmetic); a request by the largest holder for even 10.6% of its shares would use the whole offer. Nothing in the filings says it will, and the record shows these holders mostly buying and holding.

2021 to 2023: the shares that were not registered

Fund capital was $48.4 million in the offer document of April 9, 2021, $395.7 million in July 2021 and $535.0 million in October 2021. The annual report for the year to March 31, 2022 shows the source: $540,000,000 of shares sold in that fiscal year, against none in the year before, taking net assets from $39.8 million to $560.7 million (14 times, our arithmetic).

In April 2023 the fund filed a registration statement that included a public rescission offer. Its text says that “due to an administrative oversight, Fund shares offered and sold were not properly registered under the Securities Act of 1933” from April 30, 2021 through February 28, 2023, and offered to buy those shares back at the price paid plus simple interest, less cash distributions. On May 16, 2023, the fund asked the SEC to withdraw the filing because the adviser “has determined that an alternative approach” would be pursued “on a private basis outside of the Fund.” The annual report says Federated Administrative Services agreed with each affected holder to provide “compensation or value similar” to a rescission offer, that the fund's NAV and returns would not be affected, and that the shares were registered on May 22, 2023. No tender offer opened between January 10, 2023 and August 18, 2023; the August 2023 offer is the first at the 5% size. The filings do not give the cost of the settlements or the number of holders involved.

Returns, income and fees

The annual report compares the latest year with the ICE BofA US Dollar 1-Month Deposit Offered Rate Constant Maturity Index: 7.24% against 4.23%, and over five years 6.19% a year against 3.49%. The NAV never moved far: the lowest valuation-date NAV in the 37 results is $9.75 (March 25, 2020) and the highest $10.23 (September 22, 2026).

In the year to March 31, 2026 the fund earned $65.3 million of interest and paid $59.4 million of distributions, $0.61 a share on a $10.03 NAV (6.1%, our arithmetic). Of the distributions, $43.95 million, 74% (our arithmetic), was reinvested in new shares and $15.4 million was paid in cash. Fees: a 0.50% management fee; total annual expenses of 0.61% for Institutional Shares and 0.85% for Service Shares before waivers, 0.41% and 0.66% after. The adviser and affiliates waived or reimbursed $1,893,463 of $5,830,995 of expenses in the year, 32% (our arithmetic). The waivers are voluntary but come with a cap of 0.40% (Institutional) and 0.65% (Service) that cannot be raised before the later of June 1, 2027 or the next effective prospectus without Board approval. Shares sold fell from $250.7 million in the year to March 2025 to $93.7 million in the year to March 2026 (down 63%, our arithmetic) while only $2.8 million was redeemed.

What it holds, and how much of it has a market price

At March 31, 2026, 92.4% of net assets was in trade finance agreements, with an average coupon of 6.46% and a weighted average life of 23.25 months. The country table is a spread of emerging markets rather than a bet on one: the United States 8.3%, Brazil 7.7%, Turkey 6.6%, Nigeria 6.0%, Egypt 5.5%, Angola 5.2% and Uzbekistan 5.2%. By sector, banking was 13.2%, foreign sovereign 11.6%, gas distribution 8.5% and oil and gas exploration and production 8.2%.

The valuation point is the one that matters for exits. Of the $965.3 million of trade finance agreements at March 31, 2026, $957.0 million (99.1%, our arithmetic) was Level 3, valued with significant unobservable inputs, and $8.3 million was Level 2. These are private loans without a market; the NAV comes from the adviser's valuation committee, and the tender price is that NAV on the valuation date.

The shares of net assets and the maturity split are our arithmetic from each position's reported value, fair value level and maturity date. The jump in the June 30, 2026 filing is a decision to hold cash: $131.1 million in a Federated Hermes government money market fund, 2.4 times the $54.9 million October offer (our arithmetic; the dates differ). The prospectus says the fund intends to hold “a significant amount of cash or cash equivalents” to meet requests, typically 5-15% of net assets. About a third of the loan book matures within a year, which also refills the cash.

The October 2026 offer and the one open filing

From the August 2023 offer through the May 2025 offer the valuation date was the notice date. Before that (2017 to January 2023) and again since the August 2025 offer it has come 34 to 47 days later (our count), so a holder now commits before the price is known. The result of the October offer will appear in the Schedule TO-I/A that the fund files when the next offer opens; on the 85-to-99-day pattern that is between January 9 and January 23, 2027 (our count).

The fund's latest filing, on October 20, 2026, is an amended application (Form 40-APP/A, File No. 812-16083, first filed September 4, 2026) in which the fund, its adviser and its sub-adviser ask the SEC for an order that would let the fund make co-investments alongside affiliated funds and accounts. It is a request, not an order, and the filing does not say that any such transaction is planned for this fund.

What a reader can do with this

• If you hold shares and want out: the notice is due by 3:00 p.m. Eastern on November 16, 2026, and the price will be the December 22, 2026 NAV. Ask your adviser or broker whether it sets an earlier cutoff.
• If you are weighing a purchase: the filings answer three questions a brochure may not. How big is the pool for exits: 5% of net assets, at the Board's discretion, shared with holders who own 92%. What does the track record show: 13 of 37 offers drew a request, and none of the last 20 used more than 18.3% of its limit. What is the cost beyond the 0.41% net expense ratio: 0.61% before waivers, which can be withdrawn after June 1, 2027.
• What would change the picture: a request from one of the large holders, a fall in sales of new shares (down 63% in fiscal 2026), a cut in the 5% offer size, or a drop in the money market buffer that was 12.2% of net assets on June 30, 2026. Each shows up in the next Schedule TO-I, annual or semi-annual report, or Form N-PORT.
• Where it sits in our coverage: this is trade finance credit, not real estate, so use it as a point of comparison for tender-offer funds, interval funds and the private credit fund redemption tracker, not as a substitute for property. For how a sale is reported, see our page on Form 8949 and Schedule D for REIT, BDC and interval fund sales.

FAQ

All figures are from the fund's SEC filings, read on EDGAR on October 22, 2026: 38 Schedules TO-I (April 2017 to October 16, 2026, accession 0001623632-26-001573 for the open offer) and 37 final amendments (the latest 0001623632-26-001574); the prospectus of May 31, 2026 (Form 486BPOS, accession 0001623632-26-000758) and the earlier N-2 and 486BPOS filings of 2021 to 2025 for the holder lists; the annual reports for the years ended March 31, 2022, 2023 and 2026 (Form N-CSR, accessions 0001623632-22-000689, 0001623632-23-000693 and 0001623632-26-000750); Forms N-PORT for December 31, 2025 to June 30, 2026; the April 2023 Form N-2 (accession 0001623632-23-000462), the May 2023 withdrawal requests (accession 0001623632-23-000624); and the Form 40-APP filings of September 4 and October 20, 2026. Totals, shares of offers and capital, holder sums, multiples, percentage changes, the N-PORT shares and maturity splits, and the 36-day, 34-to-44-day and 85-to-99-day counts are our arithmetic. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.