Summary –
Brookfield spearheads La Trobe’s push for listed private credit LIT. As published by the AFR on Friday, Brookfield-owned La Trobe Financial, the asset management and lending group being primed for auction, is pushing into public markets with a private-credit-focused investment trust. Stockbroking firms are contacting potential investors about an IPO for the La Trobe Private Credit Fund, seeking to raise as much as $300 million. The trust’s IPO is part of a bigger push by La Trobe into listed investments as Brookfield prepares to dispatch sale documents to potential buyers of the company in the second half of June, the AFR reported. No word yet on the exact nature of the private debt strategy.
Metrics says higher disclosure could hurt private lenders. Australia’s largest domestically based private credit manager, and provider of two LITs, MXT and MOT, has warned that regulators could disadvantage the industry if they enforce higher disclosure standards than those of banks. Metrics managing partner Andrew Lockhart, told delegates at the Morningstar Investment Conference this week that sound governance trumped the need for more disclosure. His comments follow the launch of a review into private asset by ASIC in February.
LIC & ETF providers take aim at high managed fund fees. Speaking at the Stockbrokers and Investment Advisers Association’s (SIAA) 2025 conference, experts working across LICs and ETFs took aim at managed fund fee structures. During a “debate” over ETFs versus LICs, Australian Foundation Investment Company (AFIC) managing director Mark Freeman and VanEck deputy head of investments Jamie Hannah agreed that managed funds have put themselves in a bad position over the fees they charge. “They’ve got themselves into that a bit, because there are a bunch [of managed funds] that probably look okay pre fees, but they are so fixated on charging high fees and performance fees when things go well, and if they were prepared to take less for themselves and charge a lower fee some of them might be alright,” Freeman said.
LICATs Weekly Summary
Name Code Closing Price Running Yield NTA Premium/(discount) to NTA Market Capitalisation (millions) Average Daily ASX turnover (000s) Acorn Capital Investment Fund ACQ 0.735 #N/A 1.10 -0.33 65.64 56 Glennon Small Companies GC1 0.465 0.07 0.79 -0.41 22.44 31 Katana Capital KAT 1.2 0.02 1.34 -0.10 37.21 7 KKR Credit Income Fund KKC 2.29 0.09 2.46 -0.07 738.60 431 MCP Income Opportunities Trust MOT 2.02 0.08 2.15 -0.06 671.95 397 MCP Master Trust MXT 2.05 0.08 2.01 0.02 2181.11 1087 Perpetual Credit Income Trust PCI 1.195 0.08 1.11 0.08 581.44 505 Qualitas Real Estate Income Fund QRI 1.62 0.08 1.61 0.01 985.89 283 WAM Alternative Assets WMA 0.96 0.08 1.19 -0.20 188.33 209
Closing price as at end of week.