Wellington Management closed its inaugural Wellington CLO Partners Fund I, after exceeding its initial fundraising target of $150 million, with $194 million raised.
The independent investment management firm's new fund will invest mainly in majority equity tranches of broadly syndicated collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), with plans to issue two to three CLOs per year, the company announced. As of September 30, 2024, Wellington had already issued three CLOs, the company said, adding that it has $11.6 billion in CLO debt and equity assets under management.
"We believe CLO equity is a compelling asset class," according to a statement from Alyssa Irving, a CLO portfolio manager at Wellington. "With this fund, we are well-positioned to expand out platform and demonstrate our commitment to serving out clients as a CLO manager."
Separately, company announced on Wednesday that it formed the Private Real Estate Credit platform, which will originate senior and subordinated loans across commercial real estate (CRE) sectors.
The venture is an effort to meet debt funding demands at a time when banking industry structural shifts are constricting the supply of traditional sources of capital, according to a statement from Ravi S. Anand, who was hired as portfolio manager and head of private real estate credit, to lead the team running the platform.
Wellington lifted a four-man team out of Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) to head the new venture. Anand was global co-head of CRE debt and head of U.S. private CRE debt at PIMCO.
Joining Anand at Wellington are Zeyu Chen as portfolio manager, who was senior vice president at PIMCO, and was in real estate acquisitions for CIM Group and WHI Real Estate Partners; Michael Chen as principal, who was a vice president at PIMCO and a lead at Apollo Global Management; and Lucas Dias-Lam, as an associate, a position that he also held at PIMCO.
"This highly skilled and experienced team is a significant and timely expansion of Wellington's ongoing efforts to build a global, scalable, private investing platform that provides differentiated solutions and investment capabilities for our clients," according to a statement from Emily Bannister, head of private credit at Wellington Management.
