M&G appoints Emmanuel Deblanc as Chief Investment Officer of its €86 billion Private Markets business
News Release
London, 31 January 2024 – M&G Investments today announces the appointment of Emmanuel Deblanc as Chief Investment Officer to lead its Private Markets business. The firm’s €86 billion international Private Markets business has over two decades of experience in investing in private credit, structured credit, impact and private equity, real estate and infrastructure.
Private Markets investment is central to M&G’s growth ambitions in asset management, building on the firm’s rich heritage and market-leading capabilities to develop innovative propositions for UK and international clients. Private markets continue to be a bright spot for the asset management industry, accounting for half of the industry’s global revenue in 2022*, and one of M&G’s priorities is to become the European champion for private assets.
Emmanuel has over 25 years of experience, most recently at Allianz Global Investors where he led and developed its Private Markets capability and was instrumental in building out the company’s private debt franchise. Prior to this, he spent nine years at BNP Paribas where, as Co-Head of its debt advisory and financing team, he led on high profile European infrastructure and energy deals.
Reporting to Joseph Pinto, Chief Executive Officer of M&G Investments, Emmanuel will join on 14 March 2024 and will be based in London.
Welcoming Emmanuel to his new role, Joseph Pinto, said: “I am confident that Emmanuel’s combination of extensive investment experience and a track record of delivery, will help M&G to realise its ambition of being the go-to asset manager for investors seeking exposure to European assets by focusing on high value-add solutions built around client needs, that deliver attractive and sustainable margins.
“Private Markets is an area where long-term investors remain attracted to the diversification benefits on offer, typically with higher returns and lower volatility, and as the opportunities evolve, is an area with the potential to play a key role in impact investing.”
Emmanuel Deblanc, said: “I have long admired M&G’s Private Markets business – a firm with leading investment capabilities and enviable strategies for institutional investors in private credit, real estate and infrastructure. The past 15 years have turbocharged the growth of private markets and the next decade is poised to be equally as exciting as the industry evolves to meet the needs of both clients and societies, whether it is by broadening access through tokenisation or by investing in infrastructure, real estate and companies that shape the world around us. I am looking forward to joining M&G as they have all the ingredients for success – excellent investment capabilities, financial fire power from the asset owner and an ambition to grow and innovate to meet the needs of clients.”
M&G’s Private Markets business dates back to 1848 having first invested in UK real estate. It comprises six core centres of excellence:
- Private Credit: a £20 billion European private corporate lending team with a 25-year track record. In 2023, it launched its first ELTIF and re-entered the CLO market with an ESG aligned fund;
- Structured Credit: the €7 billion team is a leader in public consumer and commercial ABS as well as within private structured credit areas such as Significant Risk Transfer (SRT) and Specialty Finance;
- Impact & Private Equity: £5 billion purpose-led investment flexible private assets strategy, Catalyst was launched in 2021, and the Private Equity and Real Assets strategies have a strong track record multi-decade track record investing on behalf of the Prudential With-Profits Fund;
- Infrastructure: Infracapital is one of Europe’s leading European infrastructure investors in unlisted equity that was founded in 2001 and has since invested in over 60 businesses in 15 countries across Europe;
- Real Estate: is one of the world’s largest property investors with more than £40 billion in assets under management covering both real estate equity and debt strategies; and
- responsAbility: a leading impact asset manager specialising in private debt and equity focused on emerging markets, which became part of M&G in 2022. Since its inception in 2003, responsAbility has deployed more than US$14.2 billion in impact investments and currently manages US$4.7 billion in assets across 270 portfolio companies in 70 countries.
-ENDS-
* Sourced from BCG’s Global Asset Management Benchmarking survey 2023
€86 billion of assets under management is as at 30 June 2023.
About Emmanuel Deblanc
Emmanuel Deblanc joins M&G Investments in March 2024 as Chief Investment Officer, Private Markets.
Emmanuel brings over twenty-five years of experience in real assets as a banker and an investor. He joins from Allianz Global Investors where he served as Head of Private Markets, leading the development of the firm’s Private Markets capability and investment offering. He was a member of company’s Investment Executive Committee and International Management Group. Prior to this, he held the role of Head of Resilient Strategy and was instrumental in the build out of company’s market-leading private debt franchise.
He previously spent nine years at BNP Paribas, as a Managing Director co-heading a debt advisory and financing team. He was responsible for origination and execution of advisory and arranging mandates across a broad range of sectors, including transport and utilities.
