"The exit uplift is usually 20% to 25% for some of these managers, which is quite inherent in all the general partners we have in our portfolio. This also explains why our Astrea portfolios' LTV is always around 40% at launch, but this drops over time because of all these uplifts in valuation, coupled with all the distributions coming back," says Chue En Yaw, CEO and CIO of Azalea Asset Management.
In 2018, Azalea launched its Astrea bond series for Singaporeans. To date, they have proved to be among the safest investment-grade bonds. They are effectively asset-backed securities. The first of the retail series, the Astrea IV bonds were secured bonds backed by cash flows from a US$1.1 billion portfolio of investments in 36 private equity (PE) funds. They were fully redeemed in 2023.
Astrea V bonds were fully redeemed last year. The Astrea VI Class A bonds have sufficient cash to fully redeem them on their next call date of March 18, 2026. The loan-to-value (LTV) has dropped to about 17%. Astrea VI bonds are backed by cash flows from around 34 PE funds of which 80.4% are buyout funds. The funds are mainly in the US, Europe and Asia, in that order.
