Voya Investment Management Invests $4.4 billion of Private Placement Debt in 2021
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Voya Investment Management (Voya IM), the asset management business of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), announced it committed $4.4 billion of debt across private placement investments in 2021--including $3.7 billion invested on behalf of institutional clients.
“The market continues to grow with more than $90 billion issued in the private placement market. We remain disciplined investors, only participating where credit risk, structure and pricing meet our standards,” said Chris Lyons, head of Private Credit. “This aligns us with the interests of our clients and is a feature of our platform that has really resonated with institutional investors.”
Voya IM has seen significant growth in its external client base over the last five years, with institutional clients representing about two-thirds of Voya IM’s total $23.4 billion of private placement AUM and about 85% of annual investment. The low interest rate environment and need for institutional clients to invest created an ever-growing demand for private credit. Interest in the asset class continues to grow with ~50% of investors looking to invest more capital in private credit.
“Demand is growing as there are very attractive features, including additional up-front spread, on-going income, and lower losses. Many investors in the private placement space do not have the luxury of selectivity because they have such large target levels of production to meet the demand from their affiliate or general account portfolios,” Lyons continued.
“We believe the growth is driven not only by our performance, but also our commitment to excellent client service,” said Virginia O’Kelley, Private Credit Portfolio Manager. “Since our affiliate account isn’t as significant as some of our competitors, we are better aligned on our client’s satisfaction.”
Voya IM is a leading investor in infrastructure project financing and believes it will continue to represent a large portion of its overall private credit business. Infrastructure debt was $1.2 billion, or 27%, of Voya IM’s total amount committed and funded in 2021.
“The addition of our renewable energy project financing team is an excellent complement to Voya's three decades of diversified infrastructure lending. ESG is increasingly important to clients and mezzanine debt investments in renewable energy projects is an attractive ways to gain ESG exposure,” said Lyons.
About Voya Investment Management
A leading, active asset management firm, Voya Investment Management manages, as of December 31, 2021, more than $264 billion for affiliated and external institutions as well as individual investors. With over 40 years of history in asset management, Voya Investment Management has the experience and resources to provide clients with investment solutions with an emphasis on equities, fixed income, alternatives and multi-asset strategies and solutions. Voya Investment Management has been named every year since 2015 as a “Best Places to Work” by Pensions & Investments magazine. For more information, visit voyainvestments.com. Follow Voya Investment Management on Twitter @VoyaInvestments.
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