Aberdeen Standard Investments’ secured credit fund has raised £350m (€397.1m) from UK pension funds in the first round its capital raising.
The asset manager said the allocation accounted for roughly half of the £600-800m it was targeting for the final round of fundraising.
UK corporate pension schemes were attracted by the potential for better yields relative to public corporate bonds, Aberdeen Standard Investments said.
The investors were also attracted to the improved risk profile of investment-grade private credit, due to asset security and robust covenants, it said.
Aberdeen Standard Investments said today that the objective of the secure income and cash flow strategy was to deliver a reliable stream of cashflows by investing in a diversified portfolio of infrastructure debt, commercial real estate debt, private placement bonds and other areas of private credit.
Barry Fricke, private credit investment director at the company, said: “Secure income strategies can be an attractive way for pension schemes to meet their growing annual cash flow needs while capturing illiquidity premia.
“By investing in a diverse range of private credit assets in a single fund, investors are able to access relatively uncorrelated areas of the economy in an integrated way.”
