What are private debt investments?
Private debt investments / private credit investments involves investors providing funds to private businesses or in some instances to publicly traded businesses, where the debt itself (security) can’t be publicly traded. This can occur directly between investors and private businesses, or via investors investing into their money into a managed fund with an investment manager that then loans these funds out.
By their nature private debt investments are generally speaking illiquid, because they can't be easily transferred from one party to another, like publicly traded corporate debt or government bonds.
There are many subcategories of private debt investments and there are many financial products. Private debt investments can have a range of different types of security, from mortgage backed property, loan book backed, corporate guarantees and alternative assets. Picking the right type of private debt investments that is right for you, is critical to your investment goals.
At Royce Stone Capital we specialise in direct lending private debt investments that are mortgaged backed.
What is private credit?
Private credit investments are a subcategory of private debt investments. The term private credit investments is often used interchangeably with private debt investments. However, in our perspective, private credit focuses directly more so on funding to do with corporate facilities.
Typically, private credit in our eyes and that of Deutsche Bank, are transactions where private credit is where a corporate loan funded by investors is being given to a mid tier company. Additionally, we believe any facility where a loan book is being financed, such as a warehouse facility also belongs in this subcategory.
Private corporate credit can have a senior debt position, or it can be a subordinated debt position, with fixed or floating returns.
What are the risks of private debt investments?
As with all investments, there are risk and private debt investments are not immune but they are safer than many equity investments. Broadly speaking the below are the main risk involved with private debt and how we mitigate for these at RSC.
Investment manager risk: If you are investing your money into a private debt fund, then the performance of that fund is subject to the decisions made by the investment manager. Just because the fund says it will only lend to a 70% LVR of a property, does not mean the actual loan is 70% of the property value. As some investment managers, can vary the way in which a property is valued, to make the valuation fit the requirements of the fund mandate! We have seen this time and time again, where fund managers have influenced the valuation process to make the deal work! At RSC, as an investor funder in our direct lending products, you make the decision! All information is presented to you, with our view, but you ultimately are the decision maker, and you can determine the level of DD you want done to your satisfaction.
Another issue with private debt funds and private credit funds, is investment managers may use their fund, as security to take a loan. In other words they may provide the fund itself and the investors capital as security for a loan that the fund is taking to leverage its loan book. Once again at RSC because we don't run a fund, this is not an issue you will ever have to face!
Investment security:
Who manages my money with a RSC private debt investment?