Onex to triple credit AUM to $10 bln

Speaking at an investor presentation in Toronto on June 3, Onex Credit Partners Chief Executive Officer Michael Gelblat said the 2017 AUM growth target was up from the target of $5 billion it gave in 2012. AUM was at $3.3 billion at the end of 2013, compared with $1.5 billion at the end of 2011, and has grown ahead of the company’s expectations, he said.

“We did this almost entirely through the very successful build out of our CLO business,” said Gelblat. “There’s no doubt that the market has generally been receptive to CLO issuance over the past two years.” Collateralized loan obligations are debt-backed securities that pool together loan payments and divide them up into different tranches.

The company plans to continue to expand its U.S. CLO business and expects to launch a European CLO platform this year. Gelblat said credit is going to become a proportionally larger part of Onex, which is better known as a private equity firm.

Cameron French is a correspondent for Reuters in Toronto.