Keppel Corporation has entered into a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) to acquire the remaining 50% stake it does not own in Pierfront Capital Fund Management Pte. Ltd. on Oct 2. The stake was acquired from Clifford Capital Holdings.

Pierfront Capital offers bespoke private credit financing solutions in real asset sectors. It focuses on corporate lending to operating companies with defensive infrastructure-like business models, across real asset sectors in Asia Pacific, such as energy, transportation, telecommunications, along with social infrastructure and logistics. 

The platform was established in 2015 by Clifford Capital. After the successful deployment of its first private credit fund, Clifford Capital Holdings and Keppel established a partnership in 2020. Both parties also saw their joint sponsorship of the second private credit fund, Keppel-Pierfront Private Credit Fund, LP (KPPCF) in 2020.

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KPPCF achieved its final close in 2022, and the top-tier investors KPPCF attracted include leading global institutional investors such as the Alberta Investment Management Corporation on behalf of certain of its clients, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, GCM Grosvenor on behalf of a separately managed account, as well as Manulife.

“We believe that the private credit asset class holds promising long-term growth potential especially in today’s volatile economic landscape and tighter credit markets. We are enthusiastic about opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region, where we see a growing number of companies seeking specialised intermediate capital solutions,” says Christina Tan, CEO of fund management and chief investment officer of Keppel.

“We believe that the growing need for alternative lending solutions, combined with Keppel’s deep networks and extensive operating experience within the real asset industry, will strategically position Pierfront’s existing and upcoming credit funds to seize opportunities in Asian private debt markets. This strategy will enable us to offer investors attractive risk-adjusted returns with downside protection,” she adds.

“I would like to thank Keppel, Clifford Capital and the Pierfront Capital team for all their support and effort in developing the Pierfront Capital platform. Clifford Capital remains a co-sponsor of KPPCF with Keppel. As Clifford Capital turns its attention to other strategic initiatives, we look forward to continuing our broad and multi-faceted relationship with Keppel and I wish Pierfront Capital and Keppel the very best for the future,” says Rajeev Kannan, outgoing chairman of Pierfront Capital and non-executive director of Clifford Capital.