Fidelity Investments Announces Launch of New BDC
Fidelity Investments announced the expansion of its alternative investment’s product lineup with the launch of Fidelity Private Credit Fund, a non-traded business development company.
According to Fidelity Investments, the new BDC is available now for eligible individual investors and distributed through financial advisors and intermediaries in 43 states and territories.
The fund is available to accredited investors. Individual broker-dealers may impose additional eligibility requirements, per Fidelity.
Fidelity Private Credit Fund will be managed by Fidelity Diversifying Solutions LLC, an investment adviser that was established to support the growth of Fidelity’s alternative investment capabilities.
“With the launch of Fidelity Private Credit Fund, Fidelity leverages the depth and breadth of our credit-focused resources to offer our clients an income-oriented strategy in the private credit markets,” said David Gaito, portfolio manager of Fidelity Private Credit Fund and head of Direct Lending at Fidelity Investments. “We continue to see significant growth in the private credit market and Fidelity’s direct lending team aims to use our extensive network to access high credit quality investment opportunities.”
Fidelity established its direct lending business in 2021, which includes portfolio managers David Gaito, Therese Icuss, and Jeffrey Scott. The company says the team is backed by Fidelity’s 50 years in the credit markets and more than $620 billion in credit investments under management.
According to Fidelity Investments, the BDC’s investment objective is to generate current income and, to a lesser extent, long-term capital appreciation. The fund intends to pursue these objectives primarily through directly originated loans to private companies as well as other select private credit investments.
The company says Fidelity Private Credit Fund will be available to intermediary clients for seamless digital transaction through Fidelity Institutional’s Alternative Investments Platform at launch, and iCapital shortly thereafter. The fund is also expected to be available via CAIS, an alternative investment platform, in the coming months.
Privately held for over 75 years, Fidelity Investments has assets under administration of $9.6 trillion, including discretionary assets of $3.6 trillion as of Sept. 30, 2022.