LongWater Opportunities, a lower middle-market alternative asset manager, launched a dedicated private credit and capital solutions strategy focused on the lower middle market. To drive the strategy, LongWater hired a team of eight private investment professionals who previously led and managed the private debt and equity group of Reinsurance Group of America (RGA), a global reinsurance company. The group will be known as LongWater Private Credit and Capital Solutions and will continue to be headed by Kevin Prunty, who will serve as its senior managing director.
The incoming team previously managed a portfolio of more than $4 billion in assets in a multi-faceted, complementary strategy, including direct credit and equity co-investment commitments as well as primary LP capital commitments to lower-middle market buyout firms. The team’s reputation for delivering flexible capital solutions and experience investing across a range of industries provides an important foundation for LongWater’s new platform. Furthermore, it is a critical step towards achieving LongWater’s long-term objective to offer its investors a diverse suite of alternative investment solutions across the lower-middle market.
“We are pleased to launch our private credit and capital solutions strategy, and to give our investors access to this best-in-class team of professionals,” Brooks Burgum, co-founder at LongWater, said. “Kevin and the team possess deep expertise, strong industry relationships across the lower middle market, and a long history of success that will materially expand the breadth of investment products, capital solutions, and opportunities we provide to our investors. We are focused on delivering exceptional risk-adjusted returns for our investors and are excited to continue building on our success to date with this important diversification that enhances our overall value proposition.”
“In this challenging market, headlined by rising interest rates and widening spreads, there is significant demand from lower-middle market companies for private financing solutions,” Jordan Bastable, co-founder at LongWater, said. “Through our new private credit and capital solutions strategy, we will provide investors with an attractive opportunity to capitalize on the tremendous opportunities in the lower middle market, driven by one of the best teams in the business with whom we share strong cultural alignment and deep core values. We look forward to collaborating with our new colleagues to build out this strategy and scale our investment platform.”
“LongWater has built a stellar reputation for partnership and trust through its successful and growing lower middle market private equity investment business,” Prunty said. “The firm, like our team, has been a highly valuable financial and strategic partner to the management teams of a diverse portfolio of businesses. We believe that LongWater is an ideal new home for our business, as we share a vision for what an innovative alternative investment manager can bring to the lower middle market. We look forward to our new partnership with Brooks, Jordan, and the talented LongWater team as we execute a blended private markets strategy that we believe will create value for all our stakeholders.”
