Oaktree executive launches new firm

Brett Penprase, who officially quit Oaktree in March, has launched a third-party sales group targeting private market managers, to fill a gap in the wholesale and institutional markets.

Outside his first task - to show Flybridge Capital's unique distribution capabilities, Penprase set up an advisory council chaired by Bill Entwistle, the former Ares Management head of strategy and relationship management.

Entwistle took on a similar role at Credit Suisse for four years following a chief investment officer role at Absolute Capital, which specialised in leveraged loans, CLOs, ABS and other structured credit deals.

Also joining are Allison Bonta and Reto Boerlin from North America and Europe, respectively.

Bonta worked for  Oaktree Capital Management, specialising in private credit and infrastructure. Boerlin works for Swiss-based Invenia partners.

Following a ten-year stint at the Swiss insurer Zurich Financial Services, Penprase spent the next decade as an assistant vice president with Partners Group and director of institutional sales with Robeco.

Penprase said he has done this job for so long and had the privilege of working for arguably two of the best private market managers and now the time was right to give it a real go in setting up a quality distribution business in Australia and did not want to regret later in not giving it a go.

"If it's not successful, I can always go back and get a job," he added.

"I have been thinking about why more people have not gone down this path, I think it's the notion that people get scared by the idea - they think it's daunting.

"This market is changing so quickly, that it's easy to end up in the wrong pigeonhole when you sit in an employed position, so this set-up allows me to be more adaptive to changes in the distribution landscape."

Three years ago, Penprase joined the US$172 billion Oaktree from Challenger Limited, where he worked as a senior institutional business development manager.

He began his career in equities at Global Funds Management, which became part of Tyndall Investment Management in 1994.

He then moved on to Zurich Investments, where he ran settlements and unit pricing before being promoted to head of manager research and selection for retail distribution.

Penprase said Flybridge's style differs from rivals as the firm includes tax and structuring knowledge, reporting on distribution as though in-house.

The third-party group provides solutions to managers based on where they are in their lifecycle and the target market they look to engage with.