JANA expands investment trust offering with institutional-quality private credit solution

JANA Investment Advisers (JANA) has launched the JANA Private Credit Trust (‘the Trust’), expanding its suite of investment trusts to provide wholesale investors with access to a diversified global private credit strategy through an institutional-quality investment structure.

The Trust has already grown to more than $270 million in funds under management and provides access to high-quality global private credit opportunities that are often difficult to source directly in Australia, bringing together JANA’s institutional manager research, portfolio construction and governance capability within a single investment solution.

The JANA Private Credit Trust has been designed to address common implementation challenges associated with private credit investing, including manager access, portfolio diversification, capital deployment and ongoing governance.

The launch reflects growing demand from wholesale investors for private credit solutions that combine rigorous manager selection, strong governance and efficient implementation.

Robert Moore, Head of Debt at JANA, said: “Private credit has rewarded investors well, but the way investors access the asset class matters. In building the JANA Private Credit Trust, we considered the practical issues that can affect investor outcomes, including slow deployment, cash drag, fee leakage during ramp-up, cash-style benchmarks and unhedged currency exposure.

“We set out to address each of these in the JANA Private Credit Trust through a structure designed to provide efficient implementation, day-one credit market exposure and a more relevant framework for measuring private credit performance.”

Key features of the Trust include:

• Institutional-quality manager selection: JANA has appointed two experienced private credit managers through customised mandates designed specifically for the JANA Private Credit Trust, providing tailored portfolio guidelines rather than relying on off-the-shelf flagship funds.
• Portfolio construction: The Trust targets what JANA assesses as one of the strongest risk-adjusted segments of the global private credit market – core middle-market corporate direct lending across the US and Europe.
• Reducing cash drag: The Trust has been designed to provide investors with immediate market exposure while capital is progressively deployed into private market investments, helping reduce the cash drag often associated with open-ended private credit products.
• Benchmark transparency: The Trust adopts the Cliffwater Direct Lending Index, net of fees, unlevered and hedged into Australian dollars, providing a more relevant reference point for measuring private credit performance than traditional cash-style benchmarks.

The new Trust builds on JANA’s long history of constructing multi-manager portfolios for institutional investors.

JANA Investment Trusts have been operating since 1994 and manage approximately $18.8 billion across 25 trusts, spanning a broad range of asset classes for institutional investors, including universities, charities, insurers and other liability-aware institutions.

Manager selection sits at the core of the Trust’s investment approach. JANA has appointed Arcmont¹, an investment affiliate of Nuveen, and Jefferies Credit Partners² through customised mandates based on their institutional experience, disciplined underwriting, focus on downside protection and alignment with JANA’s rigorous governance standards.

Claire Simpson, Head of Investments, JANA Investment Trusts, said:

“Private credit has evolved into an increasingly important component of diversified portfolios, yet many of the highest-quality opportunities remain difficult for investors to access directly.

“As private credit continues to mature as an asset class, we believe the differentiator will increasingly be manager selection, efficient implementation and product design, portfolio construction and strong governance – not exposure alone. The JANA Private Credit Trust brings these disciplines together through carefully selected global managers, customised mandates and JANA’s institutional research and governance capability.

“Designed for wholesale investors with a long-term investment horizon, the Trust provides access to institutional-quality private credit exposure through a professionally managed structure focused on efficient implementation and long-term investment outcomes.”