JPMorgan targets private credit firm to boost $3.6tn asset management arm

Private Equity Wire

New York-based banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co is actively seeking to acquire a private credit firm to strengthen its private capital operations within its $3.6tn asset management division, according to a report by Bloomberg. 

Earlier this year, JPMorgan engaged in talks to purchase Chicago-based Monroe Capital, but the negotiations did not result in a deal, according to Bloomberg’s sources. 

Last January, Bloomberg reported that JPMorgan’s investment bank had allocated over $10bn of its balance sheet for direct lending and was focused on forming partnerships with asset managers to collaborate on private credit deals. 

JPMorgan’s asset management arm manages funds for high-net-worth individuals and institutions such as endowments and pension funds. At the end of last year, it managed $17bn in private credit assets, slightly less than Monroe Capital’s nearly $19bn in committed and managed capital as of 1 April. 

According to one of Bloomberg’s sources, a takeover would enable JPMorgan’s asset management arm to scale up rapidly, though the firm may choose to grow its private credit offerings organically. 

At an investor day on Monday, Troy Rohrbaugh, JPMorgan’s co-chief executive of commercial and investment banking, described private credit as an “important growing space”. 

The full article is available here. This article was published at Private Equity Wire.