(May 15): HSBC Holdings plc is yet to make material headway in plans to invest as much as US$4 billion ($5.1 billion) into its asset manager’s private credit funds, according to a spokesperson.
The bank said last year it had earmarked that sum to grow the funds and muscle further into the US$1.8 trillion asset class, which has so far been dominated by global alternatives managers such as Blackstone Inc and Apollo Global Management Inc. However, the Asia-focused lender is still keeping its powder dry.
“We are committed to our asset management’s offering in private credit funds,” a spokesperson for HSBC said in a statement. The Financial Times earlier reported on the lack of progress.
HSBC is expecting a US$400 million hit from a loan it provided to Apollo’s Atlas SP Partners unit. Atlas, in turn, lent to mortgage firm Market Financial Solutions Ltd, which collapsed into a form of UK insolvency earlier this year amid allegations of fraud.
Collapses involving non-bank lenders have spooked investors in the market, as have concerns that many private credit borrowers are heavily exposed to software companies that may be upended by developments in artificial intelligence. Retail investors in particular have raced to pull money out of certain private credit vehicles, leading some managers to limit redemptions.
HSBC conducted a review of the US$400 million provision and is updating its risk appetite, chairman Brendan Nelson said at the bank’s annual general meeting earlier this month. HSBC remains broadly comfortable in the area of private credit, he said.
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The London-based lender last year reorganised its financing and advisory units so it could house all of its investment banking activities under a single management structure. As part of that, private credit and debt capital markets operations were moved to sit alongside its corporate finance and strategic advisory businesses.
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