Schroders Capital, the private markets arm of London-based Schroders, reported on Wednesday its first private debt mandate from an Australian client.
A Schroders news release said the client — only identified as a "large industry superannuation fund" — had hired Schroders Capital to invest A$250 million ($181 million) in Australian corporate, real estate and infrastructure debt, targeting a return of 4.5 percentage points above the Bloomberg AusBond Bank Bill index.
Nicole Kidd, the firm's Sydney-based head of private debt, Australia, who launched Schroders Capital's private debt practice in the country in September 2020, declined to name the client.
But Ms. Kidd said in an interview that a combination of attractive, uncorrelated returns and focus on floating rate loans has seen the private debt asset segment garnering strong interest this year.
Interest in private debt remains nascent in the Asia-Pacific region compared with the U.S. and Europe.
At A$25.4 billion, private debt already accounts for roughly a fourth of Schroders Capital's A$103 billion in global assets under management, with A$38.4 billion of the remainder in real estate, A$19.5 billion in private equity, A$7.7 billion in infrastructure, A$6.2 billion in insurance-linked securities and A$5.7 billion in impact investments, Ms. Kidd said.
Banks had come under pressure to maximize returns on regulated capital earlier in the U.S. and Europe but that same phenomenon has spread to Asia more recently, resulting in a pickup now in interest across the region, she said.
