Private Debt Investor Podcast

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.

Oaktree Capital Management’s announcement in early February that its Opportunities Fund XII had raised $16 billion – inclusive of co-investments and affiliated investment vehicles – represented the largest fundraise for an opportunistic/distressed debt fund to date. Brook Hinchman and Jared Parker – both managing directors and co-heads of North America for Oaktree’s Global Opportunities strategy, joined The Private Debt Investor Podcast to discuss the strategy and how a mixture of factors including tariffs, liability management exercises and the path forward for interest rates are influencing decision making as the fund’s investment phase is in full swing.

Michael Schad, Head of Secondaries at Coller Capital, played a pivotal role in the credit securities market post-crisis. Gerald Cooper, Co-Head of Secondaries Advisory at Campbell Lutyens, brings nearly two decades of experience in secondary transactions. They discuss the booming private credit secondaries market, highlighting massive recent deals like the $1.6 billion portfolio acquisition. They emphasize market dynamics, potential growth paths, and how evolving capital strategies could forever change investors' approaches to liquidity and diversification.

Over the last few years, talk of private credit’s “golden age” has grown louder, with predictions from various sources that the asset class could eventually grow to around $20-25 trillion in size from its current level of $2-3 trillion. Yet, fundraising has slowed since its peak in 2021. So was all the talk premature? Jess Larsen, founder and chief executive officer of private credit-focused placement agent Briarcliffe Credit Partners, believes that it was – but he also believes this is the year when a corner will be turned and private credit will start the journey that could see it one day become larger than private equity. In this episode, Larsen also shares his thoughts on direct lending and predicts that economy of scale will become all the more crucial, and could lead to the emergence of $100 billion evergreen mega-funds. On today’s hot topic of tariffs, he does not think signs of the investor response will start to emerge for another few months, but with volatility “the order of the day” in his words, he thinks it’s inevitable that LPs will focus on building all-weather portfolios that go well beyond the confines of direct lending.

This episode is sponsored by Rithm Capital The asset-based finance market is heating up, with a raft of private credit investors increasingly taking note of the strategy – and for good reason. Capable of delivering strong returns even in challenging macroeconomic environments due to its cashflow-oriented nature, ABF represents a rather unique offering for lenders and LPs alike. But contrary to what many might think, ABF is not a particularly new strategy. Michael Nierenberg is Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Rithm Capital, a global asset manager focused on real estate, credit and financial services which makes direct investments and operates several wholly-owned operating businesses. In this episode, he explains how the market has evolved over his more than 30 years in the industry. He also discusses which industries are particularly well-positioned to benefit from ABF strategies and why he believes ABF is an area in which investors are underinvested.

Growing scale is one of the big themes in private debt as a small group of mega-sized GPs expand their platforms rapidly – both building on existing strategies like direct lending and colonising new areas such as asset-based lending and specialty finance. Among the largest of these managers is Goldman Sachs Asset Management, one of the early pioneers of the asset class. In this edition of The Private Debt Investor Podcast, we hear from James Reynolds, global co-head of GSAM’s private credit business, about how the addressable market is growing larger still – with $10 billion club deals now within the view of direct lenders. Reynolds explains why the firm has launched a climate credit strategy, arguing there is a large supply/demand imbalance in that area. He also discusses the blurring of the public and private markets, how managers are reaching out to large new pools of investor capital, why there is room for optimism around the M&A market, and the importance of focusing on underwriting rather than being distracted by the headlines.

Private debt's rapid growth is continuing to attract attention from junior professionals that are looking to make a career for themselves in this dynamic market. But how can they stand out from the crowd and prove their value in what is an increasingly competitive labour market? In November, Private Debt Investor unveiled its annual list of Rising Stars of Private Debt, which highlights the young professionals that are blazing a trail in the asset class. For this episode, we asked three of this year's cohort to reflect on their careers and share how they capitalised on opportunities that came their way over the course of their career, how they identified their areas of interest and what their advice would be for the next generation of private credit professionals. Listen as Hannah Roberts, special projects editor at PDI, speaks with Adam Baghdadi, a managing director in the lending team at Arrow Global; Priscilla Schnepper, an investment manager in the private credit team at the European Investment Fund; and Catherine Verri, a partner in the investor relations team at Carlyle, to get their top tips on how to succeed in this industry. See the full list of the Rising Stars of Private Debt here.

Last year, the European Commission launched a consultation seeking feedback on the functioning of the EU Securitisation Framework. Among those organisations submitting a response to this was the Alternative Credit Council, the body representing private credit asset managers led by global head Jiri Krol. The Private Debt Investor Podcast caught up with Krol to find out what was at the heart of the ACC’s response. The organisation believes there was an “overreaction” after the global financial crisis, placing severe regulatory burdens on the securitisation market, including the likes of private credit firms as well as banks and insurers. Krol believes a thriving securitisation market will provide welcome additional liquidity and a boost to the real economy, and he makes the case for deregulation in the face of unreasonably high demands in areas such as due diligence and transparency. The discussion also includes reflections on the ACC's latest Financing the Economy report, including the revelation that private debt has now become a $3 trillion industry.

This episode is sponsored by Golub Capital Private credit has enjoyed massive growth for more than a decade, but there are real questions about what happens when conditions are less favourable. How can lenders that launched during the good times continue to succeed when the market changes? David Golub of Golub Capital knows from experience. Golub Capital was founded 30 years ago and has performed well in all kinds of market conditions. One of Golub Capital’s strengths involves a ’good boring’ approach, which aims to minimise the excitement of market swings and focus on delivering consistently for its stakeholders. In this episode, David discusses Golub Capital's founding and its evolution through the financial crisis and the pandemic. We'll look at how cultivating close, long-term relationships with sponsors can improve every stage of the deal process, and why remaining focused on companies in resilient sectors where the firm has deep expertise has helped Golub Capital remain consistent, even in times of ‘bad interesting’.

This episode is sponsored by Sculptor Capital Management The last 24 months have been a period of uncertainty and volatility in credit markets, with rising inflation and higher interest rates putting borrower capital structures under pressure and making it difficult for lenders to price risk. These headwinds have proven challenging for mainstream lenders. But for opportunistic credit investors, it has provided a window to unlock attractive risk-adjusted returns in situations that are obscured by complexity. In this episode, we sit down with Jimmy Levin, the chief investment officer of Sculptor Capital, a global alternative investment manager with more than $20 billion of credit assets under management across corporate, asset based and real estate credit. He discusses the opportunistic credit investment opportunity set, reflects on how it’s reshaping old thinking about the credit default cycle, and explores other strategies – notably, asset based finance – that benefit opportunistic lenders who can operate free of constraints.