Fund performance: Presents under the tree as CLO funds perform

Credit funds at a glance

Private credit funds could find better buying opportunities this year, says NEPC
Institutional investors looking to allocate to private credit in 2020 should focus on distressed debt, opportunistic credit and niche lending, according to investment consultant NEPC, with 2019 vintage funds potentially seeing “better buying opportunities” despite valuations being at cyclical highs

Yielco collects €675 million across two private debt fund of fund strategies
The Munich-based firm held a final close on its inaugural private debt fund of funds strategy and has also won a separate prive debt mandate

Investors preferred real asset debt to corporate private debt in 2019, finds Bfinance
Bfinance stated that, in dollar terms, real asset debt searches conducted by investors outweighed corporate private debt searches in 2019

Pimco launches listed multi-sector global credit fund
Known as Pimco Tactical Income Fund, the fund will invest in a range of global credit strategies and will list on the New York Stock Exchange

Partners nears $100 billion in AUM as CLOs drive private debt growth
Swiss manager Partners Group has reached $94.1 billion in assets under management, with CLOs boosting the firm’s growth, according to its 2019 annual results  

BC Partners seeks $1 billion close for special opportunities fund
BC Partners Advisors is targeting a $1 billion close for its recently launched special opportunities fund, according to documents seen by Creditflux.  

Park Square promotes four after departure of direct lending head
Park Square has announced four promotions to partner, which comes a couple of months after its head of direct lending Howard Sharp parted ways with the firm, as previously reported by Debtwire

Global mid market CLO league tables: Golub and Natixis lead by a distance
Golub Capital and Natixis dominated the mid market CLO space in 2019 in the manager and arranger league tables, respectively

Golub makes its way into Europe with big direct lending hire in London
Golub Capital has ticked off one of its big targets for 2020 – establishing a European direct lending business – with market sources indicating that the firm has hired a senior official from Guggenheim in London

Värde launches $2.5 billion global credit fund
Värde Partners has raised $2.47 billion for a new global credit fund, according to an announcement today

Private debt tops the private markets agenda for insurers, finds Schroders
Insurers currently allocate the largest proportion of their private assets’ portfolio to private debt, followed by real estate, according to study published by asset manager Schroders  

‘Buying the dip’ is going to be a poor investment strategy when the next downturn comes
The next credit downturn will be shallower but more prolonged than the last, so what works will be different, too

JP Morgan AM moves CFO to head up private credit
The chief financial officer of JP Morgan Asset Management has switched to a newly created role as head of private credit

Private debt secondaries expected to soar in 2020
Private debt secondaries grew massively in 2019 — and more is expected this year.

Fund performance: Long-short funds rule in October as CLO funds struggle
A round-up of fund performance

CLOs at a glance: innovations arrive as year draws to close

Pennsylvania pension creates private credit bucket
Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System has approved a new 4% allocation to the private credit asset class

Beware of "mequity" risk in direct lending, writes Barings
Barings co-head of global private finance, Ian Fowler, predicts that the adoption of lending terms associated with broadly syndicated loans into private credit will not prove beneficial in the long term

BNP Paribas AM set to launch Nest-like private credit offer to UK pensions
French manager BNP Paribas Asset Management is set to launch a diversified private credit fund for smaller UK pension funds over the first half of 2020, similar to the one it structured for the pension scheme Nest  

Pantheon appoints ex-Star Mountain official as head of global private debt
Pantheon has appointed a former Star Mountain Capital official as partner and global head of private debt in New York 

UK pension partnership launches maiden private credit offering at £581 million
Border to Coast Pensions Partnership (BCPP) is set to commit £581 million in private credit, as part of its maiden offering in this asset class