Coller to launch credit secondaries fund

Coller Capital, one of the biggest names in secondaries, is to launch a credit secondaries fund.

The vehicle will launch “imminently” and be led by partners Michael Schad, Ed Goldstein and Martins Marnauza, according to a source familiar with the matter. The $26 billion firm is understood to be revealing the target and other details about the fund on its formal launch.

Coller is understood to have held an investor meeting on Tuesday.

The London-headquartered firm has had a specialist credit team for a decade and has invested more than $3 billion in the asset class through its flagship funds, the firm is understood to have told investors. It currently transacts on less than 2 percent of credit dealflow.

A credit fund will help Coller offer “whole portfolio solutions” for sellers that want to offload different types of asset in one go, the firm is understood to have added.

Coller is investing its $9 billion eighth flagship secondaries fund, according to Secondaries Investor data. Investors include Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, Fubon Life Insurance and New Hampshire Retirement System, according to Secondaries Investor data.

The firm declined to comment on the news.

The credit secondaries market has been transformed in 2021 by big entrants helping to make up a longstanding shortfall in dedicated dry powder. In April, Apollo Global Management launched a credit secondaries business with $1 billion to deploy. It is co-led by Earl Hunt, an incoming partner from Goldman Sachs, with another co-lead yet to be appointed.

In March, Ares Management acquired Landmark Partners in a deal worth $1.08 billion. Ares chief executive Michael Arougheti said that the credit secondaries market would be a key area of growth for Landmark.

Pantheon was the first firm to raise a dedicated credit secondaries vehicle, collecting $800 million for its Global Private Credit Fund series by final close last September. Tikehau Capital is also in market with its debut debt secondaries vehicle, Secondaries Investor understands.

A number of secondaries funds have credit pockets and tend to target assets that produce equity-like returns, said Olga Kosters, head of private debt secondaries at Tikehau at a roundtable last year. This return mismatch and a relative lack of intermediation in the market have pushed more groups towards raising dedicated vehicles.

“You have to stay in the flow, to be active with conversations and be part of this fast-changing landscape, and to do that you have to focus,” Kosters said.