Private debt manager of the year - M&G
M&G has the breadth and depth of experience few companies do, having started investing in the private debt sector in 1997.
M&G's investment philosophy is bottom-up value investing with a focus on fundamental credit research and patient stock picking over the long-term, rather than attempting to predict the future.
Original research and analyses are backed by a team of 130 dedicated professionals, allowing the investment manager to evaluate opportunities, identify value and capture the most rewarding risks across a broad range of private credit.
One of the biggest successes the asset manager recently had was creating matching adjustment (MA) eligible assets and making them more capital efficient, where previously there was inherent prepayment risk in the asset class. However, M&G were able to securitise a pool of residential mortgages to produce bespoke MA assets, structuring the deal by creating a 'companion bond', generating a buffer to absorb excess payments and providing a certain payment profile.
The considerable list of achievements and ability to meet client demands impressed the judges, particularly the catalogue of relevant solutions which demonstrated understanding and innovation of the market.
"M&G's Fixed Income business has its origins in the management of Prudential plc's insurance assets, which began in 1997. This perspective has had a profound influence on the development of our approach to investment," Russell Lee, global head of insurance solutions at M&G, said. "In the last year our private debt team has had numerous successes including winning a £500m segregated mandate from a UK insurance client for our commercial real estate debt strategy and we currently manage £21bn of insurance assets across all our private debt strategies."