While several private credit funds have been hit with waves of redemptions from retail investors since the end of last year, asset owners continue to commit to the asset class, according to data collected by AOX sister publication MandateWire.

Private equity fundraising remains muted as the industry grapples with unsold assets acquired at higher valuations. Industry leaders at the recent SuperReturn conference in Berlin said managers who fail to demonstrate value creation will struggle in fresh fundraising rounds as competition drives up asset prices.

Analysis by Eläketurvakeskus, the Finnish Centre for Pensions, has highlighted the cost-reward benefits of private equity at a time when governments across the globe push pension funds towards greater investment in the asset class.

The UK’s National Wealth Fund is trying to ‘crowd in’ investment into areas which the market might otherwise ignore. But why are no UK pensions taking it up on the offer? And what even is the fund?

A Swiss start-up is planning to use AI and robotics to target shipwrecks which are known to contain substantial amounts of precious metals, and is working with an investment platform to offer this opportunity up to investors

In the five years since the pandemic there have been 30 expressions of interest in venture capital amounting to around $11bn - mainly driven by a huge $8.8bn investment from the British Business Bank last summer

By some estimates, the amount of money insurers have pumped into private credit has more than doubled from $490bn in 2021 to $960bn in 2023. This, according to a recent paper, has had a “profound” impact on the asset class’s risk-return profile

Bank of England deputy governor Sarah Breeden, speaking at the FT’s Private Credit Connect conference, compared the problems within private credit to “lemons” and “sausages”

Investments in private equity by European institutional investors have remained broadly flat since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic but there are signs asset owners are looking at smaller scale opportunities

Asset owners are concerned about another sovereign debt crisis and are weighing their liquidity needs as they prepare for periods of market stress. But investors continue to show interest in private credit, despite concerns over default risk

Blue Owl Capital recently gated one of its direct lending funds but pension funds which have committed money to the company say they are not worried

The Bank of England’s governor Andrew Bailey is among the policy makers to express bubble fears within the private credit sector, but many asset owners still see the asset class as a necessary component of their investment portfolio.

Indirect crypto exposure among Dutch companies, institutions and households has grown rapidly, with Dutch pension funds holding the largest shares. But with wariness around the asset persisting, those who have committed remain elusive.

Texas has established a new Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, administered through the Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company, making it the first US state to invest in bitcoin. We at AOX take a look at what the allocation actually looks like.

The boom in demand for private credit has led to an influx of asset managers into the sector, and a growth in the number of funds available to asset owners - which is what concerns Mercer’s Niall O’Sullivan

The use of continuation vehicles, which involve private equity managers selling expiring assets to themselves in a new package, has been soaring and some asset owners have been buying into it. What are the risks?

Fraz Siddiqui, chief financial officer of the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, said the trend towards the retailisation of private assets was something asset owners would need to accept and work around

We seem to be living through a boom time for commodities, with the price of gold breaking the $5,000 barrier for the first time. But as commodity markets become dominated by institutional investors, this may have unintended consequences

The NFL recently opened-up minority stake ownership in its teams to institional investors, which has prompted some asset owners to dip their toes into the sport. What’s the thinking behind asset owners getting involved in sport?