Private credit boom drives Sixth Street hiring spree in Europe
Repeats from Friday
By Sinead Cruise and Tommy Reggiori Wilkes
LONDON, June 28 (Reuters) -Sixth Street is embarking on the biggest European recruitment drive in its 15-year history, leasing a new regional headquarters in London's Mayfair and adding up to 20 employees this year for a push into private credit and real estate.
Julian Salisbury, co-chief investment officer of the $75 billion global investment firm - which counts a number of ex-Goldman Sachs stars among its leaders - told Reuters the outlook for private markets in Europe was really strong.
"Because of the growing scale of firms like ours, a vibrant ecosystem of companies and entrepreneurs increasingly have the alternative to stay private longer or focus on growing their businesses with the support of long-term private investors," said Salisbury.
Sixth Street's European growth plan, reported here for the first time, is the latest example of ambition among U.S. investment firms to expand into less developed private credit markets. Ares Capital and Apollo Global Management APO.N have also become big players in the sector.
These investment firms are meeting demand from corporate borrowers that traditional banks are struggling to serve as a result of stricter rules on how much lending risk they can keep on their balance sheets.
Private credit still represents just a fraction of the overall lending handed out by banks, but its rapid growth has spooked some regulators and financiers, who worry about the sector's relative lack of supervision and whether it could undermine financial stability.
"Tighter provisioning and capital requirements on banks mean it's more punitive for them to hold these assets now, so they want partners with whom to share that risk," said Salisbury.
Founded in 2009, Sixth Street employs more than 600 people, including more than 200 investment professionals. Alan Waxman, Goldman alum, is a co-founder and CEO.
Citing London's attractive talent pool, Salisbury said the city was the "obvious first choice place" from which to build the firm's international business, even though other cities were "opening their doors and catching up" post-Brexit.
Sixth Street employs around 60 staff in London and its new offices in Dover Street close to the Ritz Hotel has capacity to accommodate twice that number.
"We expect our business to grow a lot here," said Salisbury, who spent 25 years at Goldman before joining former colleagues at Sixth Street in February.
With UK national elections next week, British-born Salisbury said he hoped politicians would protect the UK financial services industry, which he described as a "crown jewel".
"We have had a local presence here since 2011 and are growing our international business. For now, that's focused around London, with Asia a future priority," he said.
REAL ESTATE PUSH
Sixth Street has invested in businesses ranging from Airbnb ABNB.O to Bay FC, a professional women's soccer franchise.
Sixth Street launched its dedicated structured products business in March 2022. It hired New York-based Michael Dryden, former global head of securitised products finance at Credit Suisse UBSG.S to lead the team, which counts asset-backed finance as a particular market of interest.
"Private credit markets are expected to double over the next five years and we think there's organic growth potential across all our credit strategies," Salisbury said.
The company, which has also provided capital to Spanish soccer clubs Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, led the KKR-backed KKR.N consortium that bought Greensky, a lending platform for home improvement loans, earlier this year.
Salisbury said bolstering the group's real estate business in Europe was another priority in 2024, after hiring Marcos Alvarado from Safehold Inc. SAFE.N in February to head its U.S. team.
Sixth Street resisted temptation for heavy investment in the down-markets of 2021 and 2022 and sold specialist lender Kensington Mortgages to Barclays BARC.L two years ago.
Now, it is ready to capitalise on bigger discounts being offered by sellers.
Recent deals include buying, alongside other investors, a portfolio of Italian supermarkets and shopping malls valued at 258 million euros ($275.72 million).
"Real estate has become a real stock picker's market, with increasing divergence between winners and losers and a need to drive more returns through operating performance as opposed to simply levered yield trades," Salisbury said.
($1 = 0.9357 euros)
Editing by Jane Merriman
면책조항: XM Group 회사는 체결 전용 서비스와 온라인 거래 플랫폼에 대한 접근을 제공하여, 개인이 웹사이트에서 또는 웹사이트를 통해 이용 가능한 콘텐츠를 보거나 사용할 수 있도록 허용합니다. 이에 대해 변경하거나 확장할 의도는 없습니다. 이러한 접근 및 사용에는 다음 사항이 항상 적용됩니다: (i) 이용 약관, (ii) 위험 경고, (iii) 완전 면책조항. 따라서, 이러한 콘텐츠는 일반적인 정보에 불과합니다. 특히, 온라인 거래 플랫폼의 콘텐츠는 금융 시장에서의 거래에 대한 권유나 제안이 아닙니다. 금융 시장에서의 거래는 자본에 상당한 위험을 수반합니다.
온라인 거래 플랫폼에 공개된 모든 자료는 교육/정보 목적으로만 제공되며, 금융, 투자세 또는 거래 조언 및 권고, 거래 가격 기록, 금융 상품 또는 원치 않는 금융 프로모션의 거래 제안 또는 권유를 포함하지 않으며, 포함해서도 안됩니다.
이 웹사이트에 포함된 모든 의견, 뉴스, 리서치, 분석, 가격, 기타 정보 또는 제3자 사이트에 대한 링크와 같이 XM이 준비하는 콘텐츠 뿐만 아니라, 제3자 콘텐츠는 일반 시장 논평으로서 "현재" 기준으로 제공되며, 투자 조언으로 여겨지지 않습니다. 모든 콘텐츠가 투자 리서치로 해석되는 경우, 투자 리서치의 독립성을 촉진하기 위해 고안된 법적 요건에 따라 콘텐츠가 의도되지 않았으며, 준비되지 않았다는 점을 인지하고 동의해야 합니다. 따라서, 관련 법률 및 규정에 따른 마케팅 커뮤니케이션이라고 간주됩니다. 여기에서 접근할 수 있는 앞서 언급한 정보에 대한 비독립 투자 리서치 및 위험 경고 알림을 읽고, 이해하시기 바랍니다.
