Amid a growing appetite for unlisted assets, State Street has signalled its asset management arm, State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), is looking to boost its presence in the burgeoning alternatives space.
As reported by the Financial Times, SSGA chief executive Yie-Hsin Hung said the asset manager is looking to buy a stake in a private credit or infrastructure manager, in a bid to help the asset manager catch up to its rivals.
“The area is so well-established [and] given the size of our clients and their need to build and invest in a meaningful size it, I think, just makes more sense for us to either partner or take a stake in a much more established firm where it’s one plus one equals three,” said Hung.
SSGA invests across alternative asset classes like real estate, private equity, private credit, infrastructure, natural resources and hedge funds. However, according to the Financial Times, these account for less than 5 per cent of its total assets under management (AUM).
Earlier this year, SSGA announced it is joining forces with leading alternatives provider Apollo Global Management to expand investor access to private market opportunities.
In a statement in September, it unveiled plans to “democratise access to private asset exposures through ETFs and other investment products”, having filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a private credit ETF.
Ron O’Hanley, president and chief executive of State Street, said at the time private assets are “one of the fastest growing sectors of the financial industry”.
The move also follows a number of significant acquisitions in the alternatives space from global fund managers this year, such as BlackRock’s acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) in October to create an industry leader in infrastructure across equity, debt and solutions with approximately US$170 billion in AUM.
Prior to this, BlackRock also acquired private markets data provider Preqin in August, complementing its portfolio management software Aladdin and private markets solution eFront.
Earlier this year, Janus Henderson announced its second alternative investments acquisition in three months with a majority stake in US-based global private credit manager, Victory Park Capital.
It previously entered into an agreement to acquire National Bank of Kuwait’s emerging markets private investments team, NBK Capital Partners – a deal expected to close later this year. Upon completion, NBK Wealth’s private investments team will join Janus Henderson as the firm’s new emerging markets private capital division.
This year also marked GQG Partners’s first foray into private markets with the acquisition of minority interests in three US-based firms Avante Capital Partners, Proterra Investment Partners, and Cordillera Investment Partners to form its Private Capital Solutions division.
