Australia’s Pengana Capital Group is launching a listed private credit fund aimed at the retail market.

The Pengana Global Private Credit Trust is an evergreen vehicle traded on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), enabling investors to sell on market or on a quarterly basis at NAV.

The asset manager says this listed structure will give investors better liquidity than typically illiquid private credit funds.

The new trust will focus on lending to middle market companies with $50m (£40.5m) to $250m annual EBITDA.

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Pengana claims that the new trust is “the most diversified global private credit fund on the ASX”, giving investors exposure to 2,000 individual loans across 19 underlying funds, sourced and rated by Mercer.

Pengana appointed Mercer last year as an investment adviser on its portfolio construction for its private credit arm, as it looks to expand that segment of its business.

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“Global private credit has a strong track record of low volatility, attractive returns and low correlation to other asset classes such as public fixed income and equity, which can provide diversification benefits by enhancing portfolios’ risk-adjusted returns,” Pengana said.

The new, listed private credit vehicle follows the launch of Pengana’s inaugural private credit fund last year.

Pengana shareholder Washington H. Soul Pattinson made a $200m investment to seed the global private credit portfolio, with plans to roll out a series of vehicles tailored to different types of investors.

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