It’s nothing new for private capital professionals to move to a Canadian pension fund. It’s usually been private equity people, but it seems that the switch is now being made by private credit professionals now, too.
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Sogo Akintaro joined the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan (OTPP) this week, as a director in the firm’s London office serving direct lending and opportunistic credit team. He joined the firm from BlackRock’s recently acquired private credit lending subsidiary, HPS Investment Partners.
It’s understood that Akintaro is building out OTPP’s European credit platform, in collaboration with global head of private credit Jeppe Gregersen, formerly an MD with the Candian Pension Plan.
Escaping the HPS ship may have been a prudent move for Akintaro. After BlackRock’s acquisition of the firm in July, it emerged in November that the firm had written off $150m in loans to Bankim Brahmbhatt, a telecoms entrepreneur, in what HPS called “brazen” fraud. Oops.
Still, moving from a private capital firm to a pension fund – especially a Canadian one – is an increasingly enticing prospect for financiers. Although most of the movers are in private equity, pension funds have been targeting private credit as an investment class for some time. According to Pension Age, private debt was a more enticing asset class for pension funds than even private equity.