Ryan Labs Asset Management, a Sun Life Investment Management company, has added a five-strong Leveraged Finance Group to its offering.
This new division provides expertise in managing senior loan portfolios, and third-party managed collateralised loan obligation (CLO) investments.
Led by Mark Pelletier, who assumes the role of Senior Managing Director & Head, Ryan Labs Leveraged Finance, the Group provides a non-investment grade, floating rate capability that complements the firm’s existing fixed-rate, investment grade strategies, broadening the scope of solutions to meet the needs of institutional investors throughout the market cycle. Pelletier will report directly to Richard Familetti (pictured), President & CIO, Ryan Labs Asset Management. Michael Cerullo, Christian Toro, Dana Dratch and Juan Miguel Estela join as Managing Directors and report to Pelletier. The Group, which formerly made up the senior members of American Capital Leveraged Finance Management (ACLFM) where they worked together since 2005, will be based out of Ryan Labs Asset Management’s office in Manhattan.
“We are pleased to welcome Mark, Michael, Christian, Dana and Juan Miguel,” says Familetti. “The Leveraged Finance Group both complements and supports our Asset Management Team, whose agile, team-based approach and depth of experience investing in both investment grade and high yield bond sectors has led to 16 consecutive years of outperformance of their benchmark. By adding this entire highly specialised group intact, we’re able to utilise an effective, high-functioning group that can quickly add to the success of our firm.”
The addition of the Ryan Labs Leveraged Finance Group marks another milestone for the firm, enhancing the high-performing, investment grade, liability driven investing, and fixed income strategies they have historically provided to investors, with innovative new asset classes to meet the evolving needs of institutional investors through the credit cycle. Ryan Labs Asset Management is introducing its US Senior Loan strategy with USD100 million in initial seeding from Sun Life Financial.
“With an 11-year history of successfully working together, the Group has an exceptional record of managing senior loans, with a long-term loan default rate that has outperformed that of the senior loan market,” says Chris Adair, Senior Managing Director, Ryan Labs Asset Management. “The floating rate nature of these investments is attractive in a rising-rate environment. Senior loans and CLO strategies also help diversify the fixed income portion of an investor’s portfolio.”
Ryan Labs Asset Management has recently added to its Client Relationship team with the appointments of John Linder, Managing Director, Marketing and Client Strategy and Robert Shrekgast, Director, Marketing and Client Strategy, as well as the promotion of Melissa Spadafora to the role of Director, Relationship Management to better serve the US institutional market. The firm also recently announced the launch of its new Defensive Risk Premia (DRP) strategy to enhance the defensive role the fixed income allocation plays within the total asset allocation of an institutional investor’s portfolio and to further offset losses from equity market downturns.
