European credit specialist AlbaCore Capital Group announces the launch of a new Senior Direct Lending Strategy, having secured anchor investments from a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation.
AlbaCore has completed its first close, bringing together “an expected $1.8 billion in investable capital.”
With the launch of the Strategy, AlbaCore is well positioned to take advantage of the growing opportunity set to finance loans, “further expanding its market presence and delivering enhanced value to clients globally.”
David Allen, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer at AlbaCore said:
“Securing commitments from ADIA and the Trust Bank for the first vintage of our Senior Direct Lending Strategy is a testament to the attractiveness of the opportunity set in the market and how well positioned AlbaCore is to take advantage of it.”
The Strategy will leverage AlbaCore’s deep knowledge of European corporate capital structures to build a “diversified portfolio of senior direct lending investments, focusing on downside protection and delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns.”
The Strategy will also draw upon AlbaCore’s thorough “bottom-up fundamental credit analysis to primarily finance senior private loans in upper-mid to large cap performing European corporates.”
Hamad Shahwan AlDhaheri, Executive Director of the Private Equities Department at ADIA, said:
“This anchor commitment presented the opportunity to grow our existing relationship with AlbaCore, which has established itself as a leading specialist European credit manager. AlbaCore’s Senior Direct Lending strategy is well placed to address the significant and growing demand from European corporates for private credit solutions.”
As noted in the update, AlbaCore Capital Group is one of Europe’s alternative credit specialists, “investing in private capital solutions, opportunistic and dislocated credit, CLOs, and structured products.”
Founded in 2016, AlbaCore is part of the First Sentier Investors Group.
AlbaCore’s investment philosophy is focused on “capital preservation and generating attractive risk adjusted returns through the cycle for its investors.”
AlbaCore manages US$9.0 billion in AUM1 “as of December 31, 2024 on behalf of global pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, consultants, insurance companies, family offices and endowments around the world.”
As mentioned in the announcement, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG) is one of the world’s financial groups.
Headquartered in Tokyo, MUFG has a global network “with approximately 2,000 locations in more than 40 countries.”
The Group reportedly has about 140,000 employees and offers services including “commercial banking, trust banking, securities, credit cards, consumer finance, asset management, and leasing.”
The Group aims to “be the world’s most trusted financial group” through close collaboration among their “operating companies and flexibly respond to all of the financial needs of customers, serving society, and fostering shared and sustainable growth for a better world.”