Pengana, WHSP unveil private credit portfolio

By Yasmine Masi – Financial Newswire – original article

Australian fund manager, Pengana Capital Group, and investment firm, Washington H. Soul Pattinson, have announced a joint venture to develop and launch a global private credit portfolio.

As part of the collaboration, which aims to provide Australian investors access to global private credit investments, WHSP has injected $200 million of seed funding to kick start the portfolio which Pengana has been building for the last 12 months.

This offering is Pengana’s second foray into “democratising” institutional-grade opportunities for non-institutional investors as it also works to increase the exposure of Australian investors to private credit, joining Australia’s only listed global private equity fund, the Pengana Private Equity Trust (PE1).

It also comes as investors look to other methods and asset classes beyond fixed income and public equity to diversify their portfolios.

“Many every-day investors aren’t even aware of the size of this opportunity, purely because they have never had this level of access before,” Russel Pillemer, CEO of Pengana Capital Group, said.

“Investing in global private credit offers several significant benefits for portfolio construction, including diversification, higher yields, and lower volatility.

“By adding global private credit to portfolios, investors can achieve greater balance and potentially improve their risk-adjusted returns. But in Australia there is an absence of vehicles which are appropriately structured for Australian retail and mass high-net-worth investors.

“We are delighted to have partnered with an investor the calibre of Soul Patts who have provided seed funding to enable the construction of the initial portfolio ahead of Pengana bringing this opportunity to market.”

Investors will be offered the chance to invest along with WHSP through several vehicles that target segmented markets including advised and direct retail investors, high-net-worth and family offices.

“We are excited to partner with Pengana to provide Australian investors with a differentiated opportunity to invest in top-tier global private credit,” Todd Barlow, CEO of WHSP said.

“We are highly impressed by the portfolio’s investment strategy, the access to investments and expertise. On this basis we have made a substantial capital investment to seed the portfolio.”