Catholic Super, Melbourne, Australia, hired Bentham Asset Management to run more than A$70 million (US$70.9 million) in a wholesale syndicated loan fund.
The superannuation fund had A$4.017 billion as of Dec. 31, according to information on its website.
Richard Quin, managing director of Bentham AM, said returns from syndicated loans had picked up on tightening credit spreads and recovery in the U.S. corporate sector, which is “underbanked” in comparison to Australia and therefore more reliant on these floating-rate, senior-secured notes.
Mr. Quin said super funds were using syndicated loans as a low-risk, income-producing way of protecting against inflation, given the notes were floating rate, and high enough up the capital structure to rate comparably with national taxation offices.
Michael Bailey is editor of I&T News, Sydney.
