Abacus Global Management has launched an asset-based finance (ABF) strategy, marking the manager’s first entry into the $20tn (£14.8tn) market.
The ABF strategy will target investments across consumer credit, equipment finance, receivables, small business loans, intellectual property rights and contractual cash flows.
Abacus’ fund will also offer expertise in insurance-related assets, including specialty insurance solutions and policy-backed lending, the Florida-based alternatives manager said.
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“This strategy represents the natural evolution of our platform,” said Jay Jackson, chairman and chief executive at Abacus. “This product is a perfect fit for the balance sheets of our largest clients, insurance carriers, and we are looking forward to bolstering those relationships.”
The ABF fund will be led by Monty Cook, head of private credit, and Elena Plesco, chief capital officer at Abacus. Cook was formerly head of North America lending at Varde Partners, while Plesco was formerly co-head of specialty finance at KKR.
“Asset-based finance offers investors something increasingly rare: stable, contractual cash flows with structural downside protection and minimal correlation to traditional markets,” said Cook. “We see a significant opportunity to deliver these characteristics to institutional investors while leveraging Abacus’s established infrastructure.”
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The strategy will seek net risk-adjusted returns of 11–13 per cent, including capital appreciation, with a target average investment duration of three to five years, Abacus said.
Abacus’ launch of the ABF fund comes amid a broader trend of asset managers increasingly diversifying their private credit strategies beyond traditional direct lending and into ABF, as competition in the market intensifies and institutional appetite, for the niche grows.
Read more: Investors must combine ABF and direct lending to cut risk, says Apollo
