Zurich Insurance is reportedly rolling out its private credit strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, starting with Australia, where it has committed US$170m to tap into investment opportunities in local assets.
According to a Bloomberg report, citing an interview with Zurich Insurance’s APAC CIO Matt Vincent, who revealed that the insurer tapped an unnamed Australian firm in the third quarter for the mandate.
Mr Vincent pointed to favourable risk-based capital treatments, liquidity, credit quality, and mid-market lending opportunities as factors behind the firm’s deployment in Australia.
Zurich Insurance joins several firms ramping up investments in private credit. Data from research firm CreditSights show US life insurers have increased their exposure to private debt, now accounting for nearly a third of their $5.6tn in assets, up from 22% a decade ago.
For Zurich, the $170m mandate represents about 3.4% of its more than $5bn investments across general and life insurance operations in Australia, its largest market in Asia-Pacific. The insurer currently has $12bn deployed across the region, Mr Vincent said.