Since the financial crisis, alternative credit has gone through a major boom. Pension funds are increasingly making alternative credit a strategic part of their asset allocation, not a tactical or opportunistic one. In a recent survey, alternative credit strategies now account for 7.0% of total assets of pensions.
However at this point, concerns abound about being late in the credit cycle, spread compression and that covenants have never been weaker. We are also starting to see defaults quietly pick up in the direct lending space, but people aren't really talking about it.
Meanwhile, investors are still are desperate for uncorrelated income streams. And so, rather than continuing to allocate to an on the run market, investors may want to analyze what (risks) they have in their portfolio, get away from beta, focus on credit selection and look for niche opportunities and places that can do well even in market shocks. Alternative or private credit can potentially still be an option for that.
The Opalesque ALTERNATIVE CREDIT Roundtable, sponsored by SANNE, took place in New York with:
Henry (Hank) D'Alessandro, Managing Director, Head of Morgan Stanley Credit Partners
John Steinhardt, Co-CIO & Co-Managing Partner, KLS Diversified Asset Management
Mark Tecotzky, Partner, Ellington Management Group
Brian deLucia, Managing Partner, Arrivato
Jeffrey Hahn, MBA, CPA, Managing Director, FLSV Fund Administration Services, a Sanne Group Company
The group also discussed:
The top "do's and don'ts" of alt credit investing (page 17-20). Sourcing and due diligence (page 20-21). Size constraints (page 8). Monitoring and risk management (page 21-23)
Why Morgan Stanley Credit Partners does not participate in the traditional middle to upper middle sponsor leverage loan market (page 8). What does quantitative tightening mean for (alt) credit markets? (page 9)
Opportunities in non-QM mortgages, asset-based lending to retail companies (page 9), lower middle market senior loans & the broader private debt market non sponsored companies (page 10), cherry-picking in the idiosyncratic credit space (page 10), M&A-focused credit opportunities (page 11), niche specialty lending (page 11), reverse mortgage originators (page 14), smaller balance commercial bridge loans (page 16), restructuring opportunities (page 24), Europe (page 25)
Risks and limits of the cash advances model (page 15-16). Update and viability of peer-to-peer lending & FinTech (page 15-16)
Has the bank disintermediation story ended? What drives alternative credit, private debt from a macro and micro perspective now? (page 13-14)
Alt credit from the family office perspective. When and how do family offices engage in alt credit, and what are they looking for? (page 11-14)
The benefits of being a value added lender (page 13, 20-21)
Trends, Outlook & Risks: Canaries in private debt mines? (page 23-26)
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