Ontario Pension taps Antares to invest in private equity deals
BNN Bloomberg
Investment Management Corp. of Ontario, a money manager for pension funds in the Canadian province, tapped Antares Capital LP to invest US$500 million in loans to be used by private equity firms to finance transactions.
Investment Management Corp. of Ontario, a money manager for pension funds in the Canadian province, tapped Antares Capital LP to invest US$500 million in loans to be used by private equity firms to finance transactions.
The portfolio will target between 75 and 100 transactions U.S. and Canadian issuers operating in the mid-market, according to an emailed statement seen by Bloomberg. IMCO selected Antares as its private debt manager after a competitive process.
“We are building out the global credit strategy for the long term,” Jennifer Hartviksen, IMCO’s managing director of global credit, said in an interview. “As we surveyed the landscape, we identified Antares as being the best fit for us because of that superior performance generated by a demonstrated low loss rate over many cycles.”
Pension funds and other large institutions are deploying more capital to private credit as they seek higher yields to shield themselves from the accelerating inflation. Antares’s mandate will be followed by others at IMCO that will be focused on real estate debt, emerging market debt and other asset classes, Hartviksen said.
Early this year, IMCO assigned a separate US$500 million mandate for Ares Management Corp. to invest in a diversified multi-strategy credit portfolio. The firm’s credit portfolio is expected to grow to $8 billion (US$6.5 billion) by 2025 from $4.6 billion at the end of 2020.
IMCO was created about five years ago to consolidate several public-sector funds in Canada’s largest province under one manager. IMCO managed $73.3 billion in assets as of the end of 2020. It posted an overall gain of 5.4 per cent for 2020.
