The launch is another example of wealth managers making it easier for investors to enter markets that are sometimes difficult to access.

BNP
Paribas Asset Management has launched an “evergreen,” aka
perpetual, diversified private credit fund under the new European
Long Term Investment Fund label regulatory framework.

The BNP Paribas Alternative Strategies – Diversified Private
Credit Fund will invest in European corporate and real assets
debt in infrastructure and commercial real estate. It targets
institutional as well as wealth management distribution channels,
the firm said in a statement yesterday.

The ELTIF 2.0 label has been developed to give mass-affluent
clients access to private markets – mostly shut off to all
but the wealthiest individuals and big institutions.

The fund focuses on eurozone debt, the firm said.

“With this new fund, we offer our clients diversified private
market investment access through a unique solution, easy to
access and packaged conveniently with quarterly liquidity,”
Lucien Carton, head of solutions and client advisory, said. 

As wealth and asset managers have tried to crack open access to
hitherto hard-to-enter markets such as private equity and credit,
the evergreen, or perpetual model, has gained ground.
Blackstone, the US firm, has made a point about this model,

for example. “Perpetual” is a term describing a
structure of funds that doesn’t come with the drawdowns, capital
calls, exit deadlines and other traditional features of private
market entities. These “perps” don’t carry the kind of liquidity
constraints that might be a problem for investors in more
established fund structures.

Another, highly traditional way of gaining exposure to private
markets is via the liquid, listed route, as
explained recently to this news service by HarbourVest.