Arcmont receives green light to launch private credit LTAF
Arcmont Asset Management has received the green light from the regulator to launch a Long-Term Asset Fund (LTAF) focused on private credit.
The CG Arcmont Private Credit Europe LTAF will be available to professional investors and offer access to direct lending investments to European upper mid-market businessess. The open-ended strategy is the first LTAF to focus on private debt.
Carne Global Fund Managers will be the fund’s authorised corporate director.
“We are delighted to be the first dedicated European private debt manager to receive approval to launch an LTAF,” said Anthony Fobel, chief executive at Arcmont.
“This new structure, authorised by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, presents a solution for UK Defined Contribution pension scheme investors, who were previously restricted in their ability to access direct lending strategies.”
Arcmont is an affiliate of Nuveen and earlier this year closed its latest direct lending fund with €10bn (£8.5bn) in capital.
Read more: Nuveen Private Capital appoints two managing directors
Since it was founded in 2011, the group has raised more than €29bn and has invested in more than 350 deals.
Ben van den Tol, business development director at Carne Group added: “As Defined Contribution (DC) pension fund managers increasingly turn to private markets to drive enhanced risk adjusted returns for members, we are seeing growing interest in the LTAF structure, with investors recognizing the compelling benefits the structure can bring in providing investor exposure to the private markets opportunity.”
Read more: European direct lending deal volume drops as BSL market recovers
Van den Tol revealed to Alternative Credit Investor that the vast majority of DC pension schemes believe the new structure will grow in popularity.
“According to our data, almost 80 per cent of UK and European DC pension schemes expect the DC sector’s use of LTAFs and ELTIFs as a means of accessing private markets to grow over the next three years; 30 per cent believe this growth will be ‘dramatic’,” he said. “This is borne out in our conversations with clients, where we are responding to increased interest, both from investment managers and from asset allocators, in partnering to implement these new structures.”
