Overview

What’s the strategy?

This Private Debt Institutional (Portico) portfolio strategy invests primarily in Canadian private debt investments, with the goal of providing a higher yield over comparably rated public market bonds with an emphasis on maintaining strong credit quality.

This portfolio strategy leverages the expertise and experience within the Great-West Life (GWL) Private Debt team. The GWL Private Debt team sources, underwrites, structures and monitors the private debt deals. This highly specialized and experienced team has a strong marketplace reputation and well-established credit underwriting expertise. The Portico Investment Management team offers capital market expertise, portfolio management oversight and liquidity management. Both portfolio managers pursue tested and strongly vetted processes within a culture of strong risk management.

Why invest in this portfolio strategy?

Ideal for institutional investors seeking additional yield compensation without significant increase in credit risk versus comparable quality public bonds (e.g. credit metric deterioration, rating downgrade, default risk).

This Private Debt Institutional (Portico) portfolio is a good complement to traditional bond investments and offers:

  • Greater diversification through access to industries, deals, and borrowers not typically available in public markets
  • Access to long-term debt deals
  • Access to highly specialized and experienced portfolio management

Portfolio managers

Ian Whiteside (GLC-Portico) and Gaurav Mittal (GWL Private Debt Investments), manage the Private Debt institutional (Portico) portfolio strategy and are supported by the Portico team and Great West Life Private Debt team. Learn more about the Portico investment philosophy and strategy.

Ian Whiteside

Vice-President, Fixed Income

Ian is the lead manager of the corporate bond mandates for GLC’s Portico Investment Management division.

Ian joined the Portico team in 2013 and was part of the early development of Portico’s dedicated credit-research area, including proprietary coverage of Canadian and U.S. investment grade and non-investment grade issues.

He also has experience as Portico’s lead credit analyst for high-yield credit research and was instrumental in building out GLC’s credit capabilities in the Canadian high-yield corporate bond market.

Ian previously worked for a large Canadian bank in its Leveraged Finance group where he assisted with financing diversified middle market companies operating in a range of industries.

Ian is a CFA charterholder and earned a bachelor of applied science (geological engineering) degree from the University of Waterloo and an International MBA from York University.

Gaurav Mittal

Vice-President, Private Debt Investments

Gaurav has been a part of Great-West Life’s Public and Private Debt Investment areas for over 15 years, and has led the Private Debt Investments team since 2012. He has sourced, negotiated and executed private debt transactions covering all sectors across Canada, and has been involved in many of GWL’s most complex private debt deals.

Gaurav’s deep and extensive experience have solidified his strong reputation in the market place, and he is a frequently requested speaker and subject matter expert on the private debt market in Canada.

Gaurav completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree at University of New Delhi and a Masters of Business Administration from University of Western Ontario. He earned his chartered accountant designation in India in 1996 and a Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2004.

This portfolio strategy is available for the institutional investor through our relationship with the institutional investment solutions team, a division of Great-West Life Group Retirement Services.

There is no guarantee that investment objectives, or risk or return targets discussed in this material will be achieved. No part of this material may be reproduced or redistributed in any form without express written permission of GLC Asset Management Group Ltd. The data provided is for information purposes only. This material is not intended to be read in isolation and may not provide a full explanation of all the topics that are presented and discussed. Information contained in this material has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy is not guaranteed. Furthermore, there can be no assurance that any trends described in this material will continue or that forecasts will occur; economic and market conditions change frequently. This material should not be considered a recommendation or offer to purchase or sell any particular investment.