Brookfield has launched a private credit strategy managed by Oaktree for Australian wholesale investors.
Brookfield Asset Management’s private wealth arm, Brookfield Oaktree Wealth Solutions, has brought the Oaktree Strategic Credit Fund (AUD) to Australia for the wholesale market.
The strategy is managed by Oaktree and distributed by Brookfield, providing investors access to a diversified portfolio of income-generating private credit investments with selective allocations to public debt.
According to Brookfield, the launch marks the first Oaktree open-ended credit strategy made available to wholesale investors in Australia.
“Australian investors are looking to private credit investments to diversify their portfolio and generate stable current income with long-term capital appreciation potential,” commented Jeremy Hall, head of international at Brookfield Oaktree Wealth Solutions.
“We look forward to entering the market with a differentiated private credit solution, which adopts a dynamic ‘all weather’ approach to navigate changing credit cycles across the credit continuum globally, backed by Oaktree’s three decades of credit expertise.”
Channel Investment Management was chosen as the responsible entity and investment manager of the fund.
Launched in 2021, Brookfield Oaktree Wealth Solutions provides alternative investment offerings to financial advisers and their clients across the globe. It manages more than US$1 trillion in assets under management, as of 31 December 2024.
The business offers a range of liquid, semi-liquid and private strategies across real estate, infrastructure, credit and private equity. It has some 150 employees throughout 10 countries.
Brookfield Asset Management’s private equity division, Brookfield Capital Partners, recently entered the bidding war to acquire Insignia Financial earlier in this month, among competitors Bain Capital and CC Capital Partners.
On 5 February, Insignia told the ASX that Brookfield had matched the offers of both Bain Capital and CC Capital. The confidential, non-binding and indicative proposal from Brookfield would see it acquire all of the shares in Insignia by way of a scheme of arrangement at a price of $4.60 cash per share or the potential alternative to acquire scrip in Brookfield’s unlisted bid vehicle.
Insignia stated it would offer to provide to Brookfield a limited period of access to certain non-public information on a non-exclusive basis, in order to determine if Brookfield is able to formulate an improved proposal. The firm had previously opened its books to both CC Capital and Bain following their improved offers last month.
In 2019, Brookfield acquired the majority of Oaktree Capital Management, which also made its own entry into the Australian market with a $240 million investment in professional services firm AZ NGA that completed in December 2024.
