Generali and Partners Group target private credit secondaries

Generali Investments has launched its inaugural Private Credit Secondaries Fund in partnership with Swiss-based private markets specialist Partners Group, in a move aimed at capturing a slice of the fast-growing secondary transactions space within private credit.

The Luxembourg-domiciled Article 8 fund will target professional investors across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, deploying capital across a broad range of secondaries transactions to deliver what the firms describe as “compelling risk-adjusted returns”.

Structured as a Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (RAIF), the vehicle combines Generali’s fund investing and origination track record with Partners Group’s experience in secondaries and credit markets.

The launch comes at a time when the private credit secondaries market is gaining momentum alongside the broader expansion of private credit assets under management, forecast to rise from $1.5tn at 2023-end to $2.6tn by 2029, according to Preqin.

The strategy will focus on transactions led by both limited partners (LP) and general partners (GP), with the potential to double origination capacity and improve portfolio underwriting, execution, and investor reporting capabilities.

Marco Zanuso, global head of sales and marketing at Generali Investments, described the new fund as a strategic response to a market imbalance

“Over the past five years, we have observed consistent growth in the private credit sector, and our capabilities within this segment have advanced significantly. We have strategically positioned ourselves with a diverse array of investment strategies to assist our clients in achieving their direct and indirect private credit investment goals,” he added.

Standardising risk

The timing of the fund launch by Generali and Partners Group also aligns with growing industry efforts to enhance transparency and standardisation in private credit markets.

Yesterday MSCI and Moody’s Corporation announced a joint initiative to provide independent, scalable risk assessments for private credit investments.

By combining MSCI’s extensive database of private credit funds and underlying companies with Moody’s EDF-X credit risk models, the partnership aims to deliver trusted benchmarks and early warning indicators at the facility and company level.

“As the private credit market evolves, investors are looking for trusted independent assessments to help benchmark credit risk and inform investments and monitor portfolios,” said Rob Fauber, president and chief executive officer of Moody’s.

He said: “Our partnership with MSCI will play a critical role in providing these insights, helping market participants make informed decisions.”

As investors seek greater clarity and comparability in this opaque asset class, both the Generali-Partners Group fund and the MSCI-Moody’s risk solution reflect a broader trend: the maturation of private credit into a more liquid, tradeable, and institutionally accepted investment category.

Henri Lusa, managing director for private credit at Partners Group, said: “As we have seen in private equity and infrastructure, a maturing asset class often leads to a shift amongst LPs from building up allocations towards managing exposure within portfolios. We expect a growing number of LPs will use the secondary market as a portfolio management tool for their private credit investments, particularly as the market becomes deeper.”

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