British Columbia Investment Management Corp. deployed a record amount of cash in private credit last year after banks pulled back from lending.
(Bloomberg) — British Columbia Investment Management Corp. deployed a record amount of cash in private credit last year after banks pulled back from lending.
The investment manager had C$8.4 billion ($6.3 billion) in private debt as of March 31, the most since it first began investing in the asset class five years ago, its head of public markets, Daniel Garant, said in an interview.
The asset manager oversaw C$211.1 billion ($158.3 billion) as of March 31, the end of its last fiscal year and the last time it published returns.
“Borrowers wanted certainty” and found that in private debt markets, Garant said.
In 2022, private lenders stepped in to back multibillion-dollar acquisitions when banks grew reluctant to provide financing after the Federal Reserve resumed rate increases in March.
Wall Street banks reined in lending after they took losses on big-ticket deals deals they’d agreed to underwrite before the rate increases — including Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter and the $16.5 billion buyout of Citrix Systems.
The pension fund, which invests on behalf of British Columbia’s public sector, returned 7.4% for the year ended March, boosted by its holdings in infrastructure, private equity and real estate.
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