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Private credit on defensive again over ‘mark-to-myth’ study

Rene Ismail and Kat Hidalgo / Bloomberg
Rene Ismail and Kat Hidalgo / Bloomberg • 6 min read
Private credit on defensive again over ‘mark-to-myth’ study
For the past decade, the US$1.7 trillion private credit industry has ridden high on a swell of inflows built on the premise they will deliver annual returns close to 10% through bear and bull markets, all while keeping defaults and volatility low.
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The private credit industry’s claims of market-beating, stress-free returns are “illusory”, a group of academics say, adding fuel to the fire in a week that already saw executives fend off broadsides from the likes of Jamie Dimon.

Academics from Johns Hopkins University and University of California, Irvine, argue that direct lenders offer investors marginal returns compared with more transparent and widely-traded leveraged loans — and less in some cases.

In research published in the Journal of Private Markets Investing, they contend that the asset class produces limited alpha, or extra compensation over market benchmarks.

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