Transcript:
Stephanie Kater:
One of the questions we get is, what should we make of private credit impact products? Is this really a thing? How do we know if there’s going to be impact that comes from it? The market has grown pretty significantly in the last couple of years. Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen small entrants. At this point, there are almost 400 funds that are specifically private debt impact funds, but it’s really been in the last year or two that we’ve seen some of the big fund launches and some of the big asset owners come to the table for impact private credit. And late 2024 APG anchored a private debt impact fund product for Arcmont with a 375 million Euro commitment, Allianz, AXA, also making big strides forward. We’ve got big names and big numbers now entering the private credit impact space.
Michael Etzel:
We’ve been waiting almost 10 years to really see the scaled entrance into the private credit space. And now particularly in the European context, big names are headlining and getting us to the next level of opportunity here. Part of this is all about interest rates. The first chapter of impact investing is in the era of free money. And in that context, the idea of pursuing new strategies, new opportunities, really driven by the equity side of the cap table is what allowed us to get the first 10 years of progress out of the impact investing markets, or the last two or three years as alternatives have slowed and struggled a bit in the higher interest rate environment. Private credit as a secular trend has been on the upswing, so it makes sense that impact investing follows the rest of the alternative marketplace to identify its role and opportunities with those strategies as the asset class is shifting, growing, and doing well.
Stephanie Kater:
So what do you look for when you think about a private debt impact strategy to say, yeah, we think that there’s really going to be the potential realized from this product and from this flow of capital. First, we think the diligence framework is even more important in the private credit space than it is in the private equity space. Second thing we’d say to look for is good relationships between the private debt impact fund that you may be looking at and the private equity sponsors that they often team with, as well as with management teams. And the final thing to think about is whether there is a financial incentive that can be put into place along with a private debt impact strategy. We think the increased flow of capital into private credit impact is likely here to stay for a while. Owners are looking for opportunities like this in the continued high interest rate environment. We don’t think by any means private credit should be written off as a potentially impactful tool. You just have to know what to look for and look for the players that are doing it with the right rigor.