This episode is sponsored by Barings

Diversifying strategies is hugely popular with investors right now – and for good reason. Macroeconomic upheaval is prompting LPs to take a closer look at their credit portfolios and evaluate where their capital can deliver the strongest relative value.

Enter portfolio finance. The strategy is by no means new, but it is gaining traction among institutional investors for its intrinsic diversification and capital preservation properties.

In this episode of The Private Debt Investor Podcast, we speak with Dadong Yan, Barings’ global head of portfolio finance, based in Boston, and Matt Hansford, a portfolio manager in the European team, about the spectrum of opportunities available in this segment of the market.

For professional investors/institutional only. This podcast should not be distributed to or relied on by retail/individual investors. Any forecasts in this material are based upon Barings opinion of the market at the date of preparation and are subject to change without notice, dependent upon many factors. Any prediction, projection or forecast is not necessarily indicative of the future or likely performance. Investment involves risk. The value of any investments and any income generated may go down as well as up and is not guaranteed by Barings or any other person. PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT NECESSARILY INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS.

Private Debt Investor’s Europe Summit brings together leading industry figures for two days of networking and panel discussions, where artificial intelligence, the democratisation of private markets and the rise of asset-based lending were among the key targets for analysis.

In this episode, PEI Group’s special projects editor Hannah Roberts speaks with Private Debt Investor editor Andy Thomson and news editor John Bakie to provide further insight into these agenda-setting topics and examine where the market may be headed next.

Having shot to prominence in the early part of this decade, have sustainability-linked loans (or SLLs) become an enduring part of the private credit landscape? Or have they quietly gone out of fashion?

In this special edition of the podcast, co-hosted with PEI Group affiliate publication New Private Markets, we seek to chart the rise of sustainability-linked loans and assess how they are being used today.

To recap: these loans feature a margin ratchet whereby the borrower’s performance against certain sustainability targets can result in a lower interest rate in the case of outperformance, or an increase in the case of underperformance.

To help us assess the situation, we enlisted Nishan Srinivasan, head of origination and partner at Ambienta Credit. Since its inception in 2007, Ambienta has invested in companies operating in the realms of environmental and resource efficiency. Srinivasan spent 22 years at Credit Suisse, latterly as global co-head of leverage finance origination. He joined Ambienta in 2023 to help launch its credit platform.

In the early days of SLLs it was not uncommon to see ratchets of 5 basis points relating to sustainability goals that were easily achievable, says Srinivasan. “Typically this was, dare I say, window dressing,” he said. “Quite de minimis in the context of the cost of the loan”.

Fast forward to today and the targets are more ambitious, the discounts more meaningful – as much as 40bps – and there is more frequently a margin uplift in the event of failure.

In this episode, we examine some headline-grabbing company failures such as First Brands, Tricolor and Carriox – and ponder what lessons and insights there might be for the private debt asset class.

While private debt exposure may have been relatively limited in these instances, can the asset class be confident that it has its own house in order? Jiri Krol of the Alternative Investment Management Association and Alternative Credit Council acknowledges there is stress in the system – but believes that stress may have already peaked and that, in general, private debt has once again demonstrated its resilience in tough times.

But Matthias Kirchgaessner of Plexus Research is not convinced that private debt is immune from concerns around troubled companies, with fierce competition among lenders meaning that some due diligence shortcuts may have been taken.

This episode is sponsored by Rithm Capital

Asset-based finance is rapidly evolving within the world of private credit, offering investors a differentiated source of risk-adjusted returns. With the market valued at over $20 trillion, it underscores the vast scale and growing importance of this segment as investors seek alternative opportunities amid shifting economic conditions.

In this episode, we speak to Michael Nierenberg, CEO of Rithm Capital, to discuss why asset-based finance is becoming more popular with investors. We analyse the opportunities ABF brings, while also exploring how managers are differentiating themselves in a competitive market.

This episode is sponsored by Nuveen

The private debt industry continues to go from strength to strength, with several key segments of the market gaining further traction with institutional investors as they seek out strong returns in an uncertain macroeconomic environment.

Both geography and strategy will be crucial to attract LPs in the coming months and years - Europe and the US each have significant market factors at play that will determine the trajectory and rate of private credit growth across both markets, while the infrastructure-focused investment-grade space is seeing strong dealflow despite volatility.

In this episode, we speak to Randy Schwimmer, vice chairman and chief investment strategist at Churchill Asset Management; Laura Parrott, a senior managing director and head of the private fixed income group at Nuveen; and Michael Massarano, a partner and deputy CIO of Arcmont Asset Management, to find out more about the dynamics driving private debt activity across these three key segments.

This episode is sponsored by Arrow Global

To be a successful player in the distressed lending market, one needs to understand the importance of timing. The current macroeconomic environment offers plenty of opportunities for distressed lenders looking to assist businesses struggling with market dislocation, bank retrenchment and policy uncertainty. However, lenders that look to take a more opportunistic approach to the strategy may not be able to deliver the kinds of returns sought by increasingly sophisticated investors.

In this episode, we speak with Zach Lewy, founder, CEO, and chief investment officer of Arrow Global, to discuss the importance of taking a long-term view on potential targets and the opportunities and risks associated with the strategy.

We also explore why default rates are no longer truly indicative of distress in the market and why lenders who have pan-European footprints are particularly well-placed to benefit from market dislocation.

Philip Sherrill, Blackstone's global head of insurance at the company's credit and insurance unit, joined to talk about why it chooses a "capital-light" approach to insurance investing. In addition, he expands on the growing homogenisation of how insurance investors access private credit, and how the policies they're underwriting influence that – across the globe.