US global asset manager Nuveen has extended access to its private capital platform to Australian wholesale investors via the launch of the Nuveen Churchill Private Credit Income Fund. The fund has already secured early investment from a range of leading Australian wealth managers, including Drummond Capital Partners, Stanford Brown, and Morrows Private Wealth.
The fund is an Australian registered unit trust, and Channel Investment Management Limited ACN 163 234 240 AFSL 439007 will act as the responsible entity and manager of the fund.
It will invest substantially all of its assets in Nuveen Churchill Private Capital Income Fund (PCAP) which was established in March 2022. PCAP is a perpetual-life, non-traded investment vehicle that seeks to provide current income and attractive risk-adjusted returns from private capital investments in US middle market companies. The fund provides wholesale investors with exposure to a diversified portfolio of predominantly private debt investments in US middle market companies owned by leading private equity firms.
As of 31 August 2024, PCAP has an investment portfolio at value over US $1 billion and has 230 portfolio companies across a range of sectors including business services, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, high tech and construction and building.
Kelli Marti, Portfolio Investment Strategist of PCAP and Head of Collateralised Loan Obligation (CLO) Management at Churchill, said:
“Australian wholesale investors looking to diversify their fixed income portfolios globally can find exposure to private credit markets overseas, particularly in the US.
“The private credit market now totals nearly US $2 trillion globally*, having more than doubled since 2015 and now rivals the size of the US high yield bond market. As private credit markets continue to grow and become more diverse, the need for scale is only increasing as the requirement for significant infrastructure favours larger firms with the financial resources to support this complexity. In addition, private equity firms seek to partner with private capital managers with demonstrated scale and expertise.”
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Andrew Kleinig, Head of Australia at Nuveen, said: “Access to the benefits of private capital have long been the purview of institutional investors alone. The launch of the Nuveen Churchill Private Credit Income Fund is the latest step in Nuveen’s journey of unlocking the power of alternative and innovative investment solutions to, and beyond, its established institutional investor base.
“We are seeing strong interest from family offices, private wealth and high-net-worth individuals for private markets solutions as they seek solutions targeting diversification, low volatility and attractive risk adjusted returns. We believe Nuveen, via its private credit specialists Churchill and Arcmont and rich heritage in broader private markets investment, has the scale and proven track record to provide what investors need across the breadth of the distribution spectrum.”
Nuveen Private Capital was formed in March 2023 following Nuveen’s majority acquisition of Arcmont, which in combination with Churchill, created a US $75 billion private capital platform and one of the world’s largest private credit managers. Collectively, Churchill and Arcmont deployed US $218 billion in support of U.S. and European private equity firms and their portfolio companies over the last twelve months at September 30, 2024.
