JPMorgan Asset Management is seeking hedges against credit market losses as risks rise and spreads tighten. “There’s value in shorts and credit protection,” Oksana Aronov, the firm’s head of market strategy for alternative fixed income, tells Bloomberg News’ James Crombie and Bloomberg Intelligence’s Jody Lurie in the latest Credit Edge podcast. “It is very undervalued today because of the complacency in the market,” says Aronov, referring to the high-grade credit default swap index. Aronov and Lurie also discuss the increasing amount of bond and loan interest being repaid with additional debt, dwindling recovery rates, private debt convergence and high-grade opportunities.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

HPS Investment Partners is building out its fund finance business, including net-asset-value lending. “It’s a huge opportunity,” Purnima Puri, head of liquid credit and a founding partner at the $150 billion firm, tells Bloomberg News’ James Crombie and Bloomberg Intelligence’s Tolu Alamutu in the latest Credit Edge podcast. “Exits for private equity sponsors have been somewhat limited and it’s one way to get some capital back to their investor group, which I think is super important,” says Puri. They also discuss how HPS is positioning for stagflation, the private-debt deal pipeline, relative returns, slim recoveries and liability-management exercise “brain damage.”

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Barings Sees Global Credit Investor Pivot to Europe (Podcast)Demand for European corporate debt is rising as global investors seek to diversify out of US markets, according to Barings, the $442 billion asset manager. “US exceptionalism is a little bit more questioned, investors are increasingly concerned about US economic policy,” Mike Best, a high-yield and senior loan portfolio manager at the firm, tells Bloomberg News’ James Crombie and Bloomberg Intelligence’s Stephen Flynn in the latest Credit Edge podcast. “That will probably in the near term, create a very strong technical demand for European assets,” says Best, who’s taking more calls from investors seeking exposure to non-US markets. Best and Flynn also discuss risks and constraints in European credit, retail distress, communication sector winners and loser, plus how to trade liability-management exercises.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.