Allianz Global Investors (AllianzGI) has announced that two investment teams from Allianz Investment Management (AIM), part of Allianz Group, are to join AllianzGI’s expanding global private debt platform.

Alongside Sound Harbor Partners, a US private credit manager AllianzGI announced last week it would acquire, these new teams will, alongside AllianzGI’s existing capabilities, form the core of a broad private debt platform within AllianzGI’s fast-growing Alternatives segment.

From 1 January 2017, Allianz’s Munich-based Corporate Loans team, headed by Thomas Schneider, and the Westport-based US Private Placement team, headed by Charles Dudley, will join AllianzGI’s global investment platform. On joining AllianzGI, the two teams will continue to manage money for Allianz Group, as well as extending their offering to external clients.

With the addition of the assets from the Sound Harbor Partners acquisition and a further €11.5 billion in assets managed by the two new private debt teams joining from Allianz - €3.5 billion managed by the Corporate Loans team in Munich and €8 billion managed in Westport - AllianzGI will manage over €21 billion in Private Debt from 2017, cementing AllianzGI’s position as leading player in Global Private Debt.

Alternatives is one of the four pillars of AllianzGI’s global investment platform, alongside Equities, Fixed Income and Multi-Asset. The Alternatives Pillar comprises a diverse mix of both liquid and illiquid alternative investment solutions for clients, including a market-leading infrastructure debt capability and a growing French private credit business.

Since the creation of the Alternatives pillar, and before the addition of the two private debt teams from within Allianz and Sound Harbor partners, AllianzGI’s Assets Under Management in Alternatives had already more than doubled, growing from €7.6 billion in December 2014 to over €19.6 billion by the end of Q3 2016. From 2017, AllianzGI will manage over €31 billion in Alternatives on behalf of Allianz and external clients.

Deborah Zurkow, Head of Alternatives at AllianzGI, said:

"I am delighted that hot on the heels of the Sound Harbor acquisition, we are able to announce this significant further expansion of our private debt platform, underlining the momentum we are building in our Alternatives business. Together with our existing market-leading infrastructure debt offering, and our fast-growing corporate loans capability in Paris, the addition of these new teams and Sound Harbor confirm our position as a serious, significant player in the global private debt market at a time when our institutional clients are looking for alternative ways of achieving stable, long-term income.”

Andreas Gruber, Allianz Group Chief Investment Officer said:

"These two private placement teams, in Germany and the US, have long, proven track records of performance for Allianz portfolios. In their new setting at AllianzGI their experience and expertise can now, for the first time, be introduced to third parties, opening up exciting new growth opportunities.”