Metrics insulated from US private credit ‘carnage’ as Blue Owl concerns linger
Australian private credit funds say they can sidestep the downturn hitting the sector in the US because they lack exposure to software companies being hit by AI.
Metrics Credit Partners has been distancing Australia from the US in discussions with investors, using its monthly investor call to mitigate potential concerns about private credit after one of the biggest players in the US, Blue Owl, moved to freeze redemptions.
During a video conference on Monday, Metrics chief executive Andrew Lockhart was asked by distribution partner Pinnacle Investment Management about the differences between Australia and offshore markets in respect to private loans.
“Australia doesn’t have a deep extensive tech sector nor has the tech sector necessarily been a sector where lenders in the Australian market have wanted to deploy capital,” Lockhart said on the call, without mentioning Blue Owl directly.
“And so, in the US and UK market a lot of the software companies were acquired by private equity firms, which were then financed by private credit providers, and that was a significant area of lending in US and UK markets.”
