Displaying items by tag: private credit
Alternative Managers Release ESG Disclosure Tool
As the demand for standardized and transparent ESG disclosure rules continues to grow, a group of alternative asset managers launched a template for ESG disclosure. The ESG Integrated Disclosure Project template was created by the Alternative Credit Council, the private credit affiliate of the Alternative Investment Management Association, the Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA), and the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment. The Alternative Credit Council includes 250 asset management firms that manage over $600 billion of private credit assets. LSTA is a not-for-profit trade association that includes commercial banks, investment banks, broker-dealers, hedge funds, and other institutional lenders. The template intends to provide a standard format for ESG-related disclosures and offer companies a baseline from which they can develop their ESG reporting capacity. It was designed to be completed by borrower companies and shared with their lenders. Jiří Król, global head of the Alternative Credit Council, said the following in a statement, “By simplifying and harmonizing existing market practices, this new industry-led initiative will reduce the burden on borrowers while improving the materiality and comparability of ESG disclosure for investors.”
Finsum:A group of alternative assets managers created an ESG disclosure tool that offers companies a baseline to develop their own ESG reporting capacity.
Investors Shifting Fixed Income Strategies
Many investors are now adding private credit investments to their portfolios according to a global survey of institutional investors conducted by State Street Global Advisors. The survey report, The Future of Fixed Income, asked institutional investors how they view the fixed income market and how they’re allocating their investments amid the current market volatility. The findings were based on answers from 700 pension funds, endowments, foundations, and sovereign wealth funds, as well as wealth and asset managers. The results also found that investors have become more open to systematic fixed income strategies to help them fight the impact of rising prices and inflation. In addition, 51% of survey respondents stated their interest in increasing allocations to bank loans and 42% want to increase their allocation to inflation-linked bonds over the next 12 months. The findings also showed that investors are embracing index-tracking investments to gain efficient access to attractive sectors due to fee pressure and increased transparency. Over one-third of the respondents said that more than 20% of their fixed income portfolio is allocated to index strategies. The figure rises to 57% for investors with AUM over $10 billion.
Finsum: A survey conducted by SSGA noted that institutional investors are shifting their fixed income allocations amid the current market environment.
Fidelity to Launch Private Credit Fund
Fidelity Investments is expanding its alternative offerings with a new private credit fund. According to Ignites, the company registered the Fidelity Private Credit Fund as a ‘40-Act fund structured as a perpetual-term business development company. The fund will be managed by Fidelity Diversifying Solutions, the company’s new alternative unit. The fund, which will focus on lending to smaller firms, is looking to raise between $100 million and $1 billion initially. The fund will allow investors who don’t necessarily meet the requirements needed to invest in private equity, venture capital, or hedge funds. However, it does require them to have a gross income of $70,000 per year or a net worth of $250,000. According to the fund’s prospectus, net fees for the fund will range from 4.89% for institutional shares to 5.74% for S-class shares. It will also have a performance fee of 12.5% each quarter exceeding 5% growth and 12.5% of cumulative realized capital gains from inception through each calendar year.
Finsum:Fidelity is expected to launch a new private credit fund for investors who typically don’t meet the requirements needed to invest in private equity or hedge funds.
Private Credit is the Bubble Hedge
Bonds and equities are more correlated than ever and on top of that there isn’t any yield in the bond market these days due to the trillions in QE. Investors are now searching for an uncorrelated hedge to what looks like a looming equity bubble, and private credit markets are giving investors an alternative. High fees, opaque transactions, illiquid markets, and locked up finances are downsizing private credit but more companies are searching for financing partnerships in private markets. Middleman companies like Blackstone and Carlyle Tactical Private Credit can match companies in transactions that wouldn’t be possible in public markets and generate yield that wouldn’t normally be possible. In order to meet the rising demand private creditors are pitching to larger companies that could have access to the public bond market and giving persuasive pitches.
FINSUM: Private credit is the most enticing alternative to the volatile bond market.
Private Credit Boom is a Big Chance for Alts Investors
Private equity firms are overwhelmingly turning to private credit as a buyout means over traditional bank financing. In a survey by Dechert law firm 45% of private equity firms have increased their use of private credit in buyouts in the last three years, which was a 10% increase from the previous year. Now private credit only trails real estate and private equity in private capital assets and is expected to grow to $1.46 trillion by 2025. It's a combination of a borrowing flexibility and yield chasing that has investors opening the doors to private credit. Private markets also seem less tumultuous to global volatility with longer contracts that are locked up and untradable. This is a big reason more than 50% of PE firms said its their preferred method to finance buyouts.
FINSUM: Ultra low yields and global instability are the biggest draws to private markets, because we know they are statistically less correlated with super liquid debt markets.