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Philippe Paquet Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva:

Direct lending is gaining traction in France, according to the participants of a recent Opalesque Roundtable. There is demand and a strong appetite for direct lending because it can be a performing asset and an investment uncorrelated with traditional asset classes. And the French regulator has just issued a guidance for this type of investment for asset managers.

Philippe Paquet, Managing Director of NewAlpha Asset Management, a specialty investment manager based in Paris, noted on the increased activity and investor interest in direct lending.

"Almost every type of investor wants to gain first knowledge in this space and then start deploying capital in substitution of more traditional fixed income assets," he said during the Roundtable. "For instance, insurance companies are investing in direct lending because they need to invest in relatively safe fixed income proxy assets and at the same time they want to show to the public opinion that they are financing the economy. Private banks are also forced to step into this asset class as their largest clients push them to do so."

Recent geopolitical events and the subsequent stress in the market highlight the need to diversify investments and to avoid assets that are volatility-sensitive, he noted, and this is leading to greater interest in non-listed direct lending a......................

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