Ninepoint Partners, an alternative investment manager, expanded its partnership with Chicago-based private credit asset management firm Monroe Capital.

Monroe will be enhancing its institutional offerings in the Canadian market through the expanded partnership with Ninepoint Institutional Partners, a division of Ninepoint Partners. The partnership will enable Canadian institutional investors to gain access to Monroe’s private credit investment strategies – including direct lending, asset-based lending, specialty finance, opportunistic, real estate, structured credit and equity – within the estimated $10-trillion U.S. middle market.

“Institutional investors have long valued private debt as an important portfolio diversifier,” Ramesh Kashyap, managing director of the alternative income group at Ninepoint Partners, said. “We look forward to providing Canadian institutional investors with unique exposure to this asset class in partnership with one of the leading lenders in the U.S. middle-market private debt space.”

“We are pleased to continue to expand our footprint in Canada to the institutional investor base through our partnership with Ninepoint,” Zia Uddin, president and co-portfolio manager of direct lending at Monroe Capital, said. “We believe that the Canadian institutional market offers a significant area of growth for Monroe, and we are excited about the expansion of our partnership with Ninepoint.”

Since April 2019, Ninepoint Partners and Monroe have co-managed the Ninepoint-Monroe U.S. Private Debt Fund, which invests primarily in loans to U.S. lower mid-market companies and seeks to offer investors exposure that is uncorrelated to the broader volatility of public markets.