Royal London to launch alternative credit fund

Rising institutional demand has prompted this asset management firm to move into the alternative credit space. 

Royal London Asset Management has expanded into the burgeoning alternative credit space with the launch of a multi asset credit fund.

Alternative credit has become more and more popular among institutional investors in recent years thanks to several trends. Most importantly this has been the compression in yields in regular fixed income markets thanks – most experts agree – to the effects of quantitative easing by the world’s leading central banks.  

However, the disruption of the banking model has also played a key role with many asset managers and other firms stepping into many different areas of the lending market.

The RLAM’s Multi Asset Credit Fund, which is aimed at institutional investors, will comprise a directly invested and globally diversified portfolio concentrating on the ‘alternative’ part of the credit universe, a spokeswoman for the firm says

Asset classes will include secured and unsecured high yield debt, loans, asset backed securities and emerging market debt.

“We think this is particularly valuable in an environment where government and corporate bond yields are at an all-time low,” they said.

Khuram Sharih will join the fund as a manager, focusing on leveraged loans and alternative credit. He joins from Newton Investment Management, where he worked with their fixed income and global multi asset teams. Khuram was previously a senior credit analyst at Cairn Capital and held roles at Denali Capital and JP Morgan in the US.

Sebastien Poulin  also joins as a senior credit analyst with a remit split between high yield and leveraged loans. Sebastien joins from Principal Global Investors where he covered both high yield and leveraged loans. Sebastien’s previous roles were at Newton Investment Management, Standard & Poor’s and BNP Paribas.