Alternative investment manager Axa IM Alts has launched its first evergreen private credit fund under the European Long-Term Investment Fund 2.0 regulation (Eltif 2.0) regulation, raising over €230 million to date.
The fund, launched by the business unit of Axa Investment Managers, focuses on direct lending to mid-sized private companies across Europe and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member states, diversifying investments by sector and geography. Designed for individual savers, it provides access to an asset class traditionally reserved for institutional investors, offering exposure to a diversified pool of existing loans and periodic liquidity windows.
Historically, restrictive barriers limited individual savers’ access to private market assets, according to the asset manager. The new Eltif 2.0 regulation aims to make private assets more accessible to affluent and wealth investors across the EU and beyond, broadening opportunities and fuelling growth in private market investments.
This launch completes the firm’s private market offering, which already spans real estate, infrastructure and private equity funds.
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Florence Dard, global head of client group, alts at Axa IM, commented: “Throughout different cycles, private debt has demonstrated resilience and robustness as an asset class and has been very popular with institutional clients for more than a decade. Building on our expertise in managing evergreen private market strategies for wealth investors, we are delighted to be able to now offer a private debt fund to a retail and private wealth audience under Eltif 2.0. The private wealth segment is a key area of growth for Axa IM Alts, and we are excited to further expand our retail offering to the dynamic private credit market and continue to address the needs of global retail and private wealth clients through the launch of this new solution.”
Christophe Fritsch, global head of alternative credit at Axa IM Alts, added: “We see private debt as a building block for retail private assets exposure: with its natural ability to repay and a return mostly made of cash interest payments, it naturally fits the evergreen nature of the ELTIF 2.0 structure. Axa IM Alts longstanding track record in the asset class is now offered to private wealth investors.”
