Our CEO Walter Gontarek attended this year’s SuperReturn Berlin event, with over 1,000 investors and 2,500 GPs in attendance. He met with investors from the North America/Latam and EU/UK interested in our platform lending and trade finance strategies.
Key conference themes that emerged include:
1. Fund raising is down, but not out – New funds raised are down versus an active 2021/22 period, but private credit offers value as lenders restrict risk appetite
2. Its decision time – After years of ramp up in allocation during the pandemic period, LPs face today a decision to re-up with existing strategies or diversify across emerging strategies
3. Adjusting for the macro environment – Many LPs are making tough decisions, cutting GP exposure – not due to performance, but due to the denominator effect and whether they “fit” in the new macro environment
4. Emerging managers being tested – Teasing out alpha versus the beta of a rising market will become clear for emerging strategies by the end of 2023, given the current economic headwinds
Walt added, “While we enter a challenging fund raising environment than 2021/22, we have strong conviction in our strategies and are seeing compelling investment opportunities. Incoming interest has been encouraging with additional commitments lined up for the coming quarters. Our focus at Channel will remain on providing flexible capital solutions in dislocated markets with conservatively structured investments, while providing asymmetric risk-adjusted returns with careful mitigation of downside risk”.
