Innovative income and diversification opportunities
As bank disintermediation continues to dominate private debt, we offer clients access to a diverse range of innovative solutions in guaranteed and secured lending. Deals may include trade finance, fund finance, aviation loans, swap repackagings, CLOs , SRT transactions and other specialty assets with a range of tenors and risk profiles, denominated in GBP, EUR, and USD. We can tailor portfolios to meet clients' specific risk mitigation and matching-adjustment requirements.
The strength and depth of our credit research team is leveraged to provide robust governance and we follow a disciplined investment process that incorporates, but is not bound by, environmental, social and governance criteria. Many trades enable us to use underlying assets as collateral (e.g. aircraft or real estate) for greater security against transaction risks. Our expertise includes actuarial and derivatives pricing with strong risk controls for pension schemes and insurance clients.
Why invest?
Clarity for investors seeking long-dated cash flows. Our investment philosophy is focused on managing the downside, given the asymmetric risk profile of debt investing. As such, we lend against well-structured assets with security over the underlying assets and/or cashflows. We place high value on financial covenants, and avoid highly subordinated debt positions. We also embrace newer sectors and structures that may offer ‘complexity’ or ‘novelty’ premia.
Bespoke structuring
Specially-adapted structures can help investments meet defined cash-flow and eligibility criteria.
Risk mitigation
With strong risk controls in place for pension schemes and insurance clients, we frequently use underlying assets as collateral, helping improve recovery rates in the event of default.
Diversification
Historic performance shows diversification benefits versus liquid market opportunities.
Illiquidity premium
The illiquid nature of the assets typically commands a premium over comparable listed credit.
Key risks of structured finance
Investment risk
The value of an investment and any income from it can go down as well as up. Investors may not get back the original amount invested.
Illiquidity risk
Certain assets could, by nature, be hard to value or to sell at a desired time or at a price considered to be fair (especially in large quantities), and as a result their prices could be very volatile.
Market risk
Changing market dynamics may undermine the relative attractiveness of structured transactions.
Complexity risk
Assessing risk implications of multi-layered transactions is challenging.
Investment insights
Investment thinking that brings together the collective insight of Aviva Investors’ teams from across the globe on the key themes influencing markets.
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MegaTRENDs: Why TRENDs matter for investing in private markets
27 Jun 2025
A set of megatrends is reshaping the world, creating new opportunities and risks for investments in private markets.
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Illiquidity premia in private debt: Q1 2025
16 May 2025
In our latest private markets deep dive, our research team crunches the data to see how evolving macro conditions are reflected in private debt returns.
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Private debt for DC pensions: The multi-sector opportunity
11 Feb 2025
As the search for better retirement outcomes for the 28 million members of the UK’s defined contribution (DC) pension schemes continues, where are the opportunities for DC investors in private debt and how can they be harnessed?
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Relative value in private markets: Positive but selective
29 Jan 2025
Using proprietary data, our private markets research team compares risk and return across sectors.
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Illiquidity premia in private debt: Q4 2024
27 Jan 2025
In our latest private markets deep dive, our research team crunches the data to see how evolving macroeconomic conditions are reflected in private debt returns.
Seizing the moment: The outlook for real estate debt
Gregor Bamert, Sima Kotecha and Nick Solomon discuss the recovery in real estate debt markets in 2024 and the opportunities emerging.
Private Markets Study 2025
In the seventh edition of the study, we collected the views of 500 institutional investors around the world. We delved into some of the key questions facing private market investors today: Why do they invest in private markets? How do they expect the asset classes to perform over the next few years? What are the biggest barriers to investing today? And how do they incorporate sustainability?
House View
No one can predict the future. But our quarterly House View sets out the collective wisdom of our investment teams on the current state of global markets – and where they might be heading.
Structured finance team
Meet our structured finance investment team.
Munawer Shafi
Managing Director, Multi-Asset (Private Markets) and Head of Structured & Private Corporate Debt
Explore
Private markets
As one of Europe’s largest private markets investment managers, we have the scale to access the full depth and breadth of private markets.
Private debt
We finance bespoke structured finance and senior private corporate debt transactions, seeking to meet a range of client outcomes.
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