GIC to hire five executives for infra, private equity and private credit
GIC is looking to fill five associate roles across private equity, private credit and infrastructure, indicating a continued foray into alternative asset classes.
The $488 billion sovereign wealth fund posted the new vacancies last week, and a senior vice president said in a LinkedIn post there were five roles available. Already, the private equity role has been filled, according to the relevant page on GIC’s career website.
The private credit role will focus on investments primarily in the US and Europe, while the infrastructure role will cover the fund's global infrastructure strategy across all sectors, such as utilities, transportation, digital infrastructure, energy and power, and emerging infrastructure, according to the job postings.
Both positions will be part of the global investments, strategy and risk group and will be based in Singapore.
GIC did not respond to requests for comment, but Diego Lopez, managing director of Global SWF said that the private credit positions are likely to be new roles as institutional investors globally have been expanding in that area.
“I am not surprised about the private equity and infrastructure vacancies as those asset classes are already very significant and sizeable at GIC and the roles are probably to replace some leavers or to keep the department active," he noted.
"However, the hiring of private credit professionals could indeed signal stronger efforts on that newer asset class, aligning them with other global investors,” he added.
GIC was among the top 10 private credit allocators in 2020, according to Global SWF’s latest annual report on state-owned investors and public pension funds.
The fund took sixth place with an estimated $9.8 billion, or 2% of total assets under management, invested in private credit last year. Overall, GIC was the most active state-owned investor, deploying $17.7 billion across 65 deals.
Notable infrastructure deals include its co-investment in the $20.7 billion Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) gas pipeline. The consortium, which also included Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Brookfield, acquired a 49% stake in the assets in June 2020.
GIC's vacancies follow a surge in direct investments by the fund. Last week, the sovereign wealth fund reportedly agreed to invest $1 billion in US plasma collection company Biomat.
It also teamed up with Brookfield to acquire a telecoms tower company for $3.4 billion from conglomerate Reliance Industries in August 2020, making it India’s largest private equity deal to date.
Experts also told AsianInvestor earlier this year that direct deals by sovereign wealth funds such as GIC are expected to continue growing throughout 2021.