Blackstone has partnered with Finland’s S-Financial institution to widen entry to its European non-public credit score fund.
S-Financial institution has created a feeder fund that may make investments its purchasers’ capital into the Blackstone European Personal Credit score Fund SICAV.
Blackstone’s European non-public credit score fund was launched in October 2022 and has €581m (£497m) underneath administration. It invests in senior secured loans to giant European firms.
Annika Henriksson, portfolio supervisor answerable for capital investments at S-Financial institution, heralded the attractiveness of personal credit score in comparison with different fixed-income merchandise.
She famous the asset class’s engaging risk-adjusted returns, because the investments are primarily secured senior loans with variable rates of interest.
The Finnish tie-up follows Blackstone’s partnerships with Dutch financial institution ING and France’s BNP Paribas which equally permit particular person traders in these international locations to entry non-public credit score.
The partnerships underline the challenges that personal credit score fund managers face in concentrating on particular person traders in Europe in comparison with the US.
Blackstone has a really profitable US fund – dubbed BCRED – which is open to personal traders throughout the nation,
Nonetheless, every European market has its personal rules which managers should adjust to.
In France and Finland, Blackstone needed to launch a devoted construction – a feeder fund – to allow traders in these international locations to entry its non-public credit score fund.
In distinction, Italian traders can entry the identical fund instantly through UniCredit.
Learn extra: Personal debt funds: Wealth whispers
Market-specific rules additionally dictate the minimal funding thresholds. In Finland, traders should put at the very least €100,000 into the fund, whereas the decrease restrict may be as little as €20,000 in different international locations.
Different Credit score Investor understands that Blackstone plans to roll out a number of extra of those partnerships in Europe this 12 months, with the goal of creating the fund accessible to traders throughout the continent.
Asset managers have more and more been increasing into the wealth market to diversify their sources of funding and meet their progress ambitions, intensifying the competitors for Blackstone regardless of its first mover benefit.
Final month, Goldman Sachs joined the likes of Carlyle, Ares, Apollo and Eurazeo by launching a non-public credit score fund for people.
