Records are made to be broken, and as the credit boom has accelerated this year Oaktree Capital is now reportedly targeting over $18 billion for its latest distressed fund.
The Oaktree Opportunities Fund XII is expected to be the largest private credit fund ever, according to reporting from Bloomberg. Should the offering raise $18 billion, it would handily surpass the firm’s predecessor fund that raised over $16 billion in 2021.
So far, Alternatives Watch has reported on a $150 million commitment to the new fund from the Virginia Retirement System completed earlier this year.
For the 12 months through March 2023, AW Research has tallied a total of roughly $160 billion that has flowed into credit strategies. This brings the slice of the alts pie for credit to 21% of the overall $740 billion raised in private markets, according to the 2023 AW Research Manager Compendium.
Opportunistic credit has been a core investment focus for Oaktree since its inception, when the firm was a pioneer in distressed debt investing, officials at the now $179 billion firm have said. In 2020, the historic asset raise began for the predecessor fund that was raised during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, making headlines the world over. The strategy’s mandate now includes more geographies and looks very different than it did nearly 30 years ago.
Back in June, the firm announced a leadership transition with the promotions of 2024 of Robert O’Leary, portfolio manager for the Global Opportunities strategy, and Armen Panossian, head of performing credit, to co-CEOs. They will succeed Jay Wintrob, who will step down as Oaktree’s CEO at the same time.
