Ali Dibadj: Hi everyone. We’re at the UK Investment Conference in London. A packed crowd here. Now I’m here with Brendan Carroll, Co-founder of Victory Park Capital. Victory Park Capital just joined the Janus Henderson family in 2024. Brendan, thank you for coming. What does Victory Park Capital do?

Brendan Carroll: Our primary focus is providing asset-backed loans to both emerging and established businesses around the world. Typically, businesses that have traditional collateral that everybody understands, but they haven’t been around long enough yet to generate the scale, track record and all the other things that would typically be needed for a traditional bank facility to lend to them or to access the securitisation markets. So, we’re helping those businesses show that they can scale and show that their business models are worthy of that next level of debt.

Dibadj: So, part of that is the asset backed part of it. Why is asset backed so interesting right now?

Carroll: It’s been interesting to me since 2007 when we started the business, but I think it’s more interesting now because you’ve seen even further pull back from the banks. The higher rate environment has made pockets of capital much more scarce for these businesses. So, you’re just seeing more and more demand, both from the borrower side and the types of businesses that want this capital. But also, as the industry has been around now for two decades, you’re seeing more and more institutional investors get up to speed and understand it and be attracted to it.

Dibadj: So, what differentiates Victory Park Capital?

Carroll: I think a few things. First, this is what we’ve been doing now for two decades. We have 65 people at the firm. So, from an origination standpoint, the 30 of us that are out there talking to our portfolio companies in our origination channels, whether it’s the equity holders, the industry executives of these businesses, they know who we are and what we do.

This isn’t a new structure or a new strategy for us. For the last two decades, we’ve been lending against the assets of these businesses, which really differentiates both how we approach the market, but also how we structure deals. We’re not looking at cash flow multiples. We’re extending credit based upon what we think the value of the collateral is on these companies balance sheets, and it’s helping these businesses grow to attain that next level of credit.

But this isn’t something we just started doing because it’s become more popular. This is all we’ve ever done. So, the companies that borrow from us and our clients know this has been our core focus since 2007.

Dibadj: We’re Janus Henderson are very happy to have you part of our family. Our clients are appreciating it already, and we look forward to a lot of growth and a lot of opportunity to deliver for our clients. Thanks for coming. Thank you for listening.

Carroll: Thanks for having me.