Power Corp.’s Mackenzie Starts Private Credit Fund for Retail Market

(Bloomberg) -- IGM Financial Inc.’s Mackenzie Investments unit has launched a new fund to sell private credit to retail investors, a move that aims to capitalize on one of its recent acquisitions.

Mackenzie’s new fund invests most of its capital in Northleaf Capital Partners’ senior secured private lending program for institutional investors. The fund also incorporates Mackenzie’s own active high-yield and floating-rate income ETFs.

The fund is meant to give retail investors a way to benefit from direct-lending transactions, which often offer higher yields with lower default and loss rates, said Michael Schnitman, Mackenzie’s head of alternative investments. The fund helps investors diversify by letting them access private companies, he said. In return, holders give up some liquidity compared with traditional retail funds.

The fund is Mackenzie’s first collaboration with Northleaf, in which the mutual fund firm and Great-West Lifeco Inc. bought a 49.9% voting stake last year for C$245 million ($194 million). Toronto-based Northleaf is a private-markets investment firm with $15 billion in committed capital.

The new fund, called the Mackenzie Northleaf Private Credit Fund, features a C$25,000 minimum investment and allows monthly purchases and quarterly redemptions with no hard lockup.

Winnipeg, Manitoba-basedIGM Financial, which reported C$243.5 billion in assets under management and advisement as of Feb. 28, is controlled by Power Corp. of Canada.

IGM shares rose 1.5% to C$38.52 at 10:54 a.m. in Toronto. The stock is up 12% this year, compared with an 8.1% gain for the S&P/TSX Composite Index.

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