Aon raises nearly $350 Million for its Opportunistic Credit investment strategy
Aon , a global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions, announced that Aon Investments USA Inc. (“Aon Investments”) raised $349.9 million from US institutional investors for its Opportunistic Credit strategy.
The Opportunistic Credit strategy targets public corporate and structured credit, stressed credit and real estate debt. It will provide a flexible approach of allocating across a wide range of securities and markets where managers see the greatest value.
“We appreciate the support of our investors and welcome many new investors in this endeavor. The Opportunistic Credit strategy will draw on Aon’s broad research capabilities to take advantage of global dislocations in the credit markets to generate returns that are compelling on both an absolute and risk-adjusted basis. We are confident in the global platform and team we have built to find these opportunities to drive value for our investors in a quickly evolving marketplace.” -Steve Voss, senior partner and head of Aon Investments for North America.
Opportunistic Credit is a short- to medium-term strategy that will evolve over time as the business cycle plays out. The investment is appropriate for clients who are willing to take liquidity risk in exchange for attractive return potential.
“The global COVID-19 pandemic led to significant dislocations in markets. The economic downturn has increased the number of companies in need of additional financing to weather the storm. We look at the opportunity to focus on those assets that remain disconnected from their fundamentals or continue to trade at distressed levels, particularly in credit.” – Russ Ivinjack, senior partner for Aon Investments.
Aon has identified three credit strategies that offer significant upside:
– Liquidity-driven dislocations that typically react quickly to market stress in leveraged loans, high yield bonds, collateralized loan obligations and asset-backed securities.
– Stressed and distressed credit that focus on businesses and securities impacted by the financial and economic crisis.
– Real estate credit that invests in targeted sectors, such as single-asset-single-borrower and K-series securities, that offer attractive valuations.
