Asset management the jewel in La Trobe Financial's crown

PATON Established in 1952, La Trobe Financial is a proven and trusted investment partner for more than 100,000 institutional, wholesale and retail investors. It is Australia’s premier retail alternative asset manager.

La Trobe Financial maintains an unparalleled breadth and depth of funding, coupled with scale and the ability to deliver consistency of its product set across the cycle. The combination of these two elements consistently allows us to deliver quality assets and quality returns.

This creates a cycle: diversified funding allows us to deliver portfolios of high-quality assets, which allows us to secure even more quality funding, which in turn allows us to continue selecting the highest-quality assets.

In our core Australian real estate private credit strategies, La Trobe Financial maintains stable mandate settings and continued investor support comprising A$4.3 billion (US$2.9 billion) of term debt mandates and facilities from local and international banks and finance houses. Then there is a retail credit fund with A$11 billion in AUM across seven distinct investment accounts, and about A$5 billion of complementary publicly rated RMBS [residential mortgage-backed securities] transactions.

PATON The La Trobe US Private Credit Fund was launched under the La Trobe Global Asset Management banner in 2023. It further supports our role in investor wealth generation and aligns with our deep history in providing private credit strategies to Australian investors.

The fund was more than two years in the making and represents a pure-play strategy unique to the Australian market. The strategy invests in a diversified portfolio comprised primarily of directly originated, senior-secured first-lien term loans provided to companies in the US middle market.

With product adviser Morgan Stanley’s US private credit team providing asset origination, the product sticks to the same pure play, ‘no surprises’ approach to portfolio construction La Trobe Financial has adopted across its Australian real estate private credit strategies.

Investors obtain alignment with a range of generational investment trends. Given the size of the US middle market, we carefully target borrowers that operate in deep and diversified industries that demonstrate strong and stable free cash flows.

PATON There is demand across the market and we have grown AUM by circa 50 per cent in the last two years. Investors have rewarded quality of assets and consistency over time, and we now deploy about A$1 billion each month. Our natural growth rate will see our business grow to circa A$30 billion in the next 3-4 years, providing an enormous market opportunity.

La Trobe Financial continues to observe strong demand from investors and borrowers alike. Investors prize high-quality assets delivered with consistency. Meanwhile, brokers recommend our products to customers because they recognise our broad product suite, consistency of funding and the ongoing service they receive from La Trobe Financial.

This demand trend looks set to continue. The forecast to the end of this decade is marked for softer economic growth coupled with market volatility. Investors will continue to seek strategies that do not need a high-growth market to perform. In many ways, private credit and other forms of alternative investments are set to become a much more important allocation in portfolios.

BARRY La Trobe Financial continues to observe demand from a wide range of investors. Our securitisation programme is broadening its global support across Australia and APAC, Europe and the US. Our ability to go to market tactically across economic cycles gives our funding programme tremendous power and flexibility. This market-leading approach can only be achieved with our mature, deep relationships across our funding sources.

This funding benefits not only investors but also mortgage brokers and borrowers. It supports a stable suite of lending products, providing brokers and borrowers with certainty that their requirements can be met. This stability is the progenitor of a pipeline of diverse, high-quality loan assets.