Asset-backed finance has grown increasingly prevalent in recent years. What’s driving this?

We saw an expansion of the private asset-backed finance (ABF) market following the global financial crisis in 2008, when regulatory and capital constraints forced banks to delever and streamline their businesses, creating opportunities for other capital providers to fill this financing gap.

Many borrowers were forced to seek alternative sources of credit, emphasising certainty of execution and greater flexibility – features that non-bank lenders were able to offer. As a result, in the period since, non-bank lenders have grown significantly, both in numbers and size.

In addition, institutional investor interest in ABF increased meaningfully, starting in 2023 when higher interest rates slowed private equity exits and LP distributions, as many private credit investors looked for more predictable cashflows, diversification and stable realised returns.

How would you define your approach to ABF, and what makes it unique?

At ICG, we target enhanced, risk-adjusted returns for clients by opportunistically allocating across a broad spectrum of asset classes, regions, currencies and capital structures. Such flexibility provides us with the freedom to capitalise on a rapidly evolving investment universe, while taking advantage of dislocations and dynamics that may occur at different stages of the economic cycle.

Within the ABF opportunity set, we tend to focus on diversified portfolios of financial assets for which there are no reliable third-party research tools, which acts as a natural barrier to entry. We often find attractive opportunities in spaces where there is less scalability and less standardisation. Investments in this space are generally between $20 million-$100 million, as we find larger transaction sizes typically involve auctions arranged by a professional adviser, offering less flexibility on terms and producing tighter pricing as a result of a competitive process.

What opportunities are you seeing to capitalise on credit dislocations?

The ABF market has witnessed continued capital inflows and increasing investor interest, which has caused a general tightening in spreads, leaving fewer credit dislocations. However, we believe opportunities exist in sectors that are not readily scalable to large capital inflows and involving non-standardised underwriting.

We see attractive investment opportunities in three key areas: speciality finance companies originating loans to small and medium size enterprises (SME) or consumers; investments backed by pools of receivables, including those related to corporate settlements, healthcare and trade finance; and significant risk transfer (SRT) transactions providing exposure to differentiated assets such as SME loans, equipment financing and agricultural loans.

Are any geographies more attractive to you right now?

Demand for ABF capital will continue to be global, despite being concentrated in the US and Europe. Because most of our senior investment team have lived and worked in multiple geographies around the globe, we have less of a bias to the US and are more geographically agnostic. Due to our focus on excess returns and inefficiencies, we have recently found many of our best opportunities in Europe.

What does the shifting macroeconomic outlook mean for your investment approach?

We are cautious about overreacting to ad-hoc US policy announcements. However, although we share the relatively benign economic outlook that market pricing implies, we are conscious that the market may not fully reflect the future effect of US policies. For example, it appears that the final level of US tariffs will be historically high, which may lead to a greater economic burden on consumer finances and/or corporate profits.

Current US policy with respect to immigration may constrain labour supply, potentially putting upward pressure on wages and limiting higher GDP growth. The fiscal burden of the recently passed tax and spending bill is highly dependent on future US economic growth rates, and longer tenor bond yields may remain higher for longer, even if the US Federal Reserve cuts short-term rates, until market concern regarding future US debt issuance abates.

This potential for higher-for-longer bond yields and lower-than-normal economic growth may result in ongoing headwinds for borrowers. Therefore, we are vigilant on the state of the weakest corporate, commercial real estate and consumer borrowers and are primarily focused on ABF tranches that benefit from a robust cushion against credit losses, which may allow such investments to withstand an economic slowdown and offer high absolute cash yields.

Which types of underlying assets are attracting the most investor interest today?

Investor interest in ABF assets remains broad-based. Vanilla SRT transactions backed by large-cap corporate loans and revolvers are particularly in vogue. In addition to this, traditional sectors such as consumer auto loans, consumer credit card receivables and consumer unsecured loans have seen tightening of spreads. Due to the surge in research and development related to artificial intelligence, ABF backed by data centres is also seeing growing investor interest.

How does ABF compare with other segments of private credit in terms of risk-return profile?

ABF has the ability to offer greater realised returns for the same – or less – credit risk relative to other forms of private credit. Opportunities in ABF often arise from the specialist expertise required to underwrite and structure contractual cashflows from large pools of obligors, which demand a different skillset than traditional corporate credit lending backed by the operating cashflows of a single obligor. Despite its recent growth, we believe that the ABF market remains underpenetrated, creating a favourable supply-demand imbalance.

A major difference between ABF and other forms of corporate private credit stems from the granularity of its pool of underlying credit exposures. A well-diversified corporate direct lending portfolio may comprise fewer than 60 companies. A well-diversified ABF portfolio, including corporate and consumer exposures, can consist of tens of thousands of underlying credit positions (on a look-through basis) because each investment is backed by its own underlying asset portfolio. This is one of the reasons why ABF can offer more predictable, stable realised returns.

In addition, an important feature of ABF is its low reliance on the business plan, management team, profit growth, exit strategy or exit valuation of an individual company, a characteristic that may fit well within a private credit allocation already invested in corporate lending.

Are you seeing increased appetite for ABF among institutional investors?

We have definitely seen increased ap- petite from LPs for ABF over the past several years, as investors have become aware of the benefits an allocation to ABF brings to an allocator’s private credit bucket.

Based on recent frustrations LPs have experienced with low DPIs for other asset classes, it is unsurprising that there is increased appetite for ABF. ABF investments are generally amortising and offer shorter duration cashflows, mitigating the J-curve typically seen in private equity and corporate credit.

In a world where other asset classes are becoming increasingly commoditised, there remains a non-standardisation premium associated with ABF, creating opportunities for enhanced returns. The breadth of our ABF expertise enables us to capitalise on market inefficiencies stemming from regulatory constraints, fragmented investor bases and inconsistent data.

Our senior investment team members were trained as structurers at a time when many of the now mature asset classes within ABF were in their infancy, and we were involved in the creation of many of the structures still used today. This has given us a fundamental understanding of securitisation mechanics and nuances and allows us to apply our existing knowledge and expertise to new privately originated investments.

How do you expect the ABF landscape to evolve in the coming years?

The ABF landscape will continue to proliferate in both breadth and size, as the themes of bank retrenchment and regulation create new opportunities and asset types, fulfilling the growing demand from LPs for strategies in this space.

Even though we have seen significant growth in AUM and funds launched in the last couple of years, we believe we are still in the early stages of growth of the ABF asset class, particularly in relation to other private assets such as direct corporate lending.

At ICG, we have an established, experienced ABF platform with a best-in-class track record that has invested more than $6 billion since 2014. As a result, we are well placed to provide our LPs with a differentiated, excess return-focused ABF strategy that has a proven track record through multiple cycles.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Investing in private markets involves substantial risks, including the risk of capital loss. The value of investments can up as well as down. Diversification does not guarantee a profit or protect against losses.

The post The ABF market is just getting started appeared first on ICG.

• ICG CEO & CIO Benoît Durteste, speaking with Bloomberg’s Opening Trade Anchor Kriti Gupta, commented that Europe has a relatively favourable environment for investment
• He told Bloomberg TV that successful private markets firms like ICG are “choosing the best deals first” in the current market
• Gupta stated during her broadcast that “private markets are really juicy markets right now, especially in Europe”
• On France, Durteste commented “we’ve been investing [in the country] for 36 years. We’ve seen a lot of movement and government changes. It’s always been always been, for us, a really attractive country in which to invest”

Watch the interview in full

Transcript

Host of Daybreak Europe Tom Mackenzie

Earlier this month the alternative asset manager ICG, raised more than €3bn for its second European infrastructure fund. ICG said there was significant surge in demand from investors in North America. Let’s find out how it will be invested and bring in Opening Trade Anchor Kriti Gupta, who is at the IPEM private capital conference in Paris. Kriti …

Kriti Gupta

Tom, it’s a fascinating time to be here, not only because I’ve got the best assignment in Paris, but because private markets are really juicy markets right now, especially in Europe. We’ve got one of the key people, the key players involved, as you just said, ICG CIO and CEO Benoît Durteste joining me right here, overseeing about 125 billion of assets under management. We thank you so much for your time this morning. But while we’re here in Europe, we’re here in Paris, the beautiful city of Paris, there’s a lot of hype in Europe right now. A lot of international investors, especially from the States, want to deploy their money here, and they’re attaching that reason to the massive amount of fiscal spend coming out of the government; an encouraging investment environment perhaps. How long does that stick around?

Benoît Durteste

Well, I think probably for quite some time. I mean, if you look at the fiscal programmes that a number of governments have put in place, and think Germany, that’s the largest one, that’s at least a 10-year programme. So this is a 10-year horizon on that investment pace. And also, more broadly, I don’t think it’s just that. I think it’s, you know, people are just, they’re assessing risk, and they’re comparing risk, and suddenly Europe looks – oddly enough – quite stable. There may not be. I mean, you’re not thinking massive growth, but you’re also looking at – there are a lot of buffers to protect that growth level on the downside. So that makes for a relatively favourable environment for investment. 

Kriti Gupta

When it comes to the environment for investment, though, because there’s so many investors coming to Europe right now trying to get that exposure to defence, AI, energy security – the many themes we’re watching – how much of that increases and affects the valuations that you’re seeing in the private markets?

Benoît Durteste

It hasn’t yet. So it may, it may, because historically, you’ve seen valuations were typically higher, sometimes much higher, in the US than Europe. So there could be a catch up. It’s possible; not seeing it yet. I’m also a bit more cautious on, you know, I think those flows of capital are coming into Europe, but they need to find the right place in which to invest. And that takes time. It’s not as though they’re suddenly awash with money. So it’ll take time to walk it through the economy and possibly valuations as well.

Kriti Gupta

Well, let’s talk about one of the key factors in that, and that feels like the geopolitical volatility, –  the swirling around – certainly affecting some of the capital markets, affecting the exits that we’re seeing. There’s a thought here that there has been a real glut of exits for about – I want to say – two or three years. Correct me on that if I’m wrong, but a lot of the in the recent months coming out of just geopolitical volatility and uncertainty in the investment environment. In your perspective, where do the capital markets stand right now? 

Benoît Durteste

Yeah, I think you’re right. I mean, that’s the correct assessment. It’s been three years. Actually, we’re going into the fourth year of below normal levels of general deal flow in the buyout space and exits as a result, hasn’t moved. I mean, if you’ve looked at the reports for the first half of the year, it shows it’s essentially flat on the previous year, maybe slightly down, and some of that is linked to the geopolitical environment, but it’s also linked to a bid ask spread on valuations that hasn’t yet fully converged. It will over time, but it’s a big overhang, and it probably will take a few years before everything is worked through the system.

Kriti Gupta

So if you don’t do the traditional IPO as an exit, are there other ways to find that?

Benoît Durteste

Sure, sure. I mean, there’s been a lot. There’s been a resurgence of exits to corporates, to the industry, which hadn’t been that much the case before. And so you’re seeing – because a lot of the industrial players or corporate players are actually quite cash rich. So you’re seeing them make a move and take advantage of this environment to acquire and so that’s becoming an exit path as well. And in Europe, unlike the US, the IPO route has never been the major route for buyout exits in Europe. Maybe it will in the future, but I think for that, you need stronger capital markets and maybe a more cohesive European capital market, which I believe all governments are trying to work on, but it’s taking some time.

Kriti Gupta

Well, Benoit, about a year ago, Bloomberg, was right here at this conference. And what was kind of the sound in the room was this idea that you are seeing GPs facing a lot of pressure on the exit front from their LPs. And the thought at that point was, if the IPO markets or the capital markets broadly stay frozen, where does that money go? Since then, we’ve seen a real – specifically in the States – this idea of democratisation and access to private funds show up. Does that alleviate some of the pressure around exits?

Benoît Durteste

I’m not so sure. Because I don’t think it’s I don’t think it’s a question of capital. The capital is there. There’s capital available. Actually, some people are saying there’s quite a lot of capital sitting on the sideline, particularly for private equity. So the issue is not access to equity or debt for that matter; debt markets are quite hot right now. It’s more of a question of, are the right investments there? Is there the right balance, given the economic environment and the right valuations for people to move and proceed. There is deal flow, not like the markets completely frozen, and there is deal flow, but not the same level of deal flow that you saw four or five years ago.

Kriti Gupta

Kind of dipping their toe into the market. Perhaps, if we’re looking at a research?

Benoît Durteste

Yes they’re all choosing the best deals first and making their way through that overhang of buyout deals. 

Kriti Gupta

Spoken like a true PE investor, Benoit, talk to us about the interest rate environment here, we’re starting to see a massive shift to dovish territory in the States, the ECB has already been cutting earlier this year as well. Does that make deal making better? Or should we be reading that as concern around a slowdown the economy? How do you think about that?

Benoît Durteste

No, well, actually, I think in Europe, it’s been relatively stable. It’s come down much faster, and it’s now, it’s now at a relatively stable rate. Inflation is relatively low. I mean, in France, it was at its lowest this summer in a long time. So you’re actually in a relatively stable environment, which is – that’s conducive to deals; at least that’s not what is preventing deals from getting done. And the level now, yes, it’s not the zero or even the negative that we might have seen a few years ago, but you’re at 2% so this is not something that’s preventing deals from getting done. 

Kriti Gupta

A final question to you, we’re here in Paris. There’s a big question right now about the French investment landscape, specifically, as we see a government that’s kind of still trying to find its feet, we’re talking about the idea of a wealth tax being imposed as well. How are you approaching investing in France?

Benoît Durteste

Yes, there’s always been movement and noise in French politics. But if you look at what’s been happening for the past – for several years now there’s actually been quite a lot of effort from the on the part of the government, to make France more attractive for investment, and it’s worked actually. You’ve seen significant inflows into France. So that has worked. The noise around the various politics – wealth tax is not new, and that’s not a new debate in France. We had one, actually, for a while, and now there is a tax on real estate, which is a different type of wealth tax. So this is not new. That’s not what’s going to stop investment. We’ve been investing in France for 36 years. We’ve seen a lot of movement and government changes. It’s always been, for us, a really attractive country in which to invest.

Kriti Gupta 

All right, we look forward to see how they’re all pans out. Benoît Durteste there, joining me here in Paris at the IPEM conference. He, of course, is the CIO and CEO over at ICG.  

Go deeper

• Find out about ICG’s participation at IPEM
• Inform yourself on ICG’s latest macro economic analysis which includes a section on France
• Watch our video (in French with English subtitles) to meet our Paris-based investment teams

The post Europe: a relatively favourable investment environment appeared first on ICG.

Where and when to find us

Meet us in our space, E123, on Level 1 of Hall Passy at the Palais des Congrès. The ICG teams listed on this page are hosting meetings on the Thursday and Friday. A map can be found below (click to expand):

Panel discussions

25 September 14:00 / 14:30 – Conference Room

IPEM features a panel discussion – Are private markets facing a middle-age crisis? – during which Benoît Durteste, CIO & CEO, ICG, discusses:

• Efficiency within private markets as they grow
• Competition for deal origination favouring bigger, broader firms
• The ICG perspective on current and future trends

26 September 14:15 / 14:50 – Summit Room 2

The Secondaries Summit’s first panel discussion – The big picture on secondaries – includes Oliver Gardey, Head of Private Equity Fund Investment ICG. Panellists set the scene on market activity and key transactions.

Arrange a conversation

Attending IPEM? Get in touch with our Client Solutions Group to arrange meetings with members of our investment teams, including:

European Corporate

• Benoît Durteste, CIO & CEO
• Hadj Djemai, Head of Southern Europe
• Thierry Beliard, Managing Director

LP Secondaries

• Oliver Gardey, Head of Private Equity Fund Investment
• Vivien Blossier, Managing Director

Asia-Pacific Infrastructure

• Devarshi Das, Head of Asia-Pacific Infrastructure

European Infrastructure

• Guillaume d’Engremont, Head of European Infrastructure
• Penelope Dietsch, Managing Director

We look forward to seeing you in Paris!

The post ICG at IPEM Paris 2025 appeared first on ICG.

As we reflect on the past year, I’m pleased to showcase in this report the ways that ICG has continued to embed responsible investing principles across our asset classes and strategies. We view sustainability matters as integral to effective risk management, as well as potential drivers of opportunity – and we have spent the last year working to grow and strengthen our systems for scale; further integrating sustainability considerations into our investment process from pre-investment diligence; to engagement with sponsors, financial partners, and management teams; to ongoing monitoring and measurement of progress on key sustainability KPIs.

The rapidly expanding and shifting regulatory environment facing our clients and our portfolio companies has required us to place ever more attention on sustainability data collection and management, and on harmonising our requests for information with industry frameworks and forthcoming regulatory standards. This past year, we have taken important steps to partner with IT and data analytics teams within ICG to further strengthen our capabilities around data collection and analysis; a theme which will continue in the months and years to come.

We have also focused on embedding the use of our bespoke materiality assessment tool, SPOTlight, into our pre-investment assessment approach across strategies. Where we are able to better identify material risks in potential investments, we can not only help to protect the investments of our clients, but also identify areas where we can focus our engagement efforts post investment, supporting companies with a variety of efforts such as building operational resilience, strengthening their workforces, seeking out cost savings related to decarbonising their business models, and unlocking potential opportunities for value protection and enhancement.

Looking ahead

In the year ahead, we will continue our work to strengthen our capabilities and embrace systems that allow us to scale our integration of sustainability considerations across a growing range of ICG products.

In particular, we will be focused on expanding data-driven intelligence – on an asset-level basis as well as portfolio-wide. Our proprietary materiality tool is helping to tailor engagement strategies to each company’s unique context, ensuring efforts are salient and commercially relevant. We will also seek to gather more strategic intelligence from across our own portfolio and more than a decade of responsible investing experience, to share valuable sector-level and thematic sustainability information with investment teams and portfolio companies.

As regulatory expectations evolve and investor demand for transparency grows ever more, we will continue to focus on data quality and streamline reporting to support clients and other stakeholders with decision-useful information. A particular area of analytical focus will be on more detailed assessment of climate-related risk. We know physical and transition risks can pose material challenges for investments, and we will seek to leverage available resources to strengthen our analysis and monitoring capabilities.

We look forward to another year of partnership between ICG’s Sustainability team and investment teams, and with sponsors and management teams, to continue integrating meaningful, useful analysis and consideration of sustainability factors across our investment landscape.

The post Letter from our Global Head of Sustainability appeared first on ICG.

Indeed, ICG has emerged as one of the few global alternative asset managers who are seeing their competitive position strengthened in today’s challenging market conditions. We know this is thanks to our strong track record, product offering, culture and people. This report highlights how we are strengthening our investment approach through the integration of sustainability considerations, our efforts to attract and support the best people, and our work to ensure we manage the risks and impacts of our operations.

ICG’s clients, regulators, shareholders and other stakeholders rightly expect us to understand and manage the full spectrum of risks that can affect long-term value in our investments. Climate change, governance failures, human capital considerations – as well as emerging macro trends such as the growing use of AI and resilience of supply chains – are potential material risks that can erode value if left unaddressed, and also unlock opportunity when tackled with foresight and discipline.

We have evolved a sustainability approach that is both rigorous and tailored, accounting for the nuances of each investment strategy. We see this integration as a source of competitive advantage; companies with strong sustainability practices are better positioned to attract talent, secure capital, and deliver resilient growth. That’s why we’ve integrated sustainability into our investment decision-making and our value creation plans – aligning our teams with long-term outcomes that matter.

Our people are at the heart of ICG’s success. We strive for a culture that celebrates high performance. And, we aim to attract an engaged and ambitious team who contribute a variety of strengths and perspectives at every level to strengthen and grow our business.

Looking ahead, we will continue to evolve our approach – not just to meet regulatory expectations, but to deliver superior returns for our clients by investing in businesses that are built to thrive in the next-generation economy.

The post CEO foreword to Sustainability and People Report 2025 appeared first on ICG.

FY25 was a milestone year for us, both in terms of the results achieved and in securing visibility on future growth. We are delivering on our ambition of having breadth at scale, which is underpinned by our belief that clients are concentrating their resources on GPs with whom they can deploy significant amounts of capital into a range of private markets strategies, with top-tier investment performance. Managers such as ICG who are able to meet those demands are clearly benefiting and are seeing an increasing proportion of client business.

As I reflect on the year, a number of highlights stand out: We attracted $24bn of client capital; We launched our first US evergreen strategy (Core Private Equity) and our first Asian Infrastructure fund; We opened offices in three new locations; and We made a number of important hires across our platform, in particular into our Client Solutions Group and key investment strategies.

Our waterfront of products today enables our clients to access a number of attractive, large and growing private markets asset classes. We have organically built leading positions in structured capital, secondaries and debt, and have a real assets platform that is positioned for growth. This is reflected in our AUM, with Structured Capital and Secondaries accounting for ~46%, Real Assets for ~12% and Debt strategies account for ~42%.

We are proud of the platform that this has created:

• Our flagship strategies (European Corporate, Strategic Equity and Senior Debt Partners) have leading positions in their markets
• Our scaling strategies (Mid-Market, Infrastructure, Real Assets, LP Secondaries and North America Credit Partners) are successfully attracting capital from clients and originating attractive investment opportunities

As a result, in a challenging market environment we are raising more capital from more clients into more strategies. This is visible in our fundraising for FY25, where we attracted 122 new institutional clients and raised 35% of the capital from the Americas. We had a number of final closes during the year including:

• SDP V ($17bn^[1] fund size, $4.9bn raised in FY25): the largest ever direct lending fund in Europe^[2]
• SE V ($11bn^[1] fund size, $5.8bn raised in FY25): the world’s largest GP-led secondaries fund focused on single asset continuation vehicles
• Europe Mid-Market II (€3bn^[1] fund size, €1.3bn raised in FY25): ICG’s largest ever vintage-to-vintage upsize, 3x larger than Europe Mid-Market I
• NACP III ($1.9bn^[1] fund size, $0.3bn raised in FY25): 50% increase in client capital compared to predecessor fund

From a shareholder perspective, this breadth at scale results in increasingly large and diverse management fees, and significant operating leverage.

Management fees have grown at an annualised rate of 19% in the last five years, and were £604m in FY25. Over the same time period, our group operating expenses grew at an annualised rate of 12%. Transaction levels in the buyout market remained subdued in the year. Against that backdrop, we saw deployment and realisations notably higher than our average over the prior four years. In part this is a reflection of our size, and in part due to the nature of our investment strategies. Structured Capital and Secondaries drove deployment^[3], accounting for $11.6bn out the total $17.5bn, while Real Assets enjoyed its largest ever year of deployment at $2.4bn. Realisations^[3] were driven by Private Debt, which accounted for $5.2bn of the total $8.9bn.

Competitive leveraged loan markets over the last 12 months along with subdued buyout levels have impacted the private debt landscape. We view this as a natural ebb-and-flow of the credit cycle, and it follows a very attractive period for direct lending in recent years.

Looking ahead, FY26 has started with notably higher levels of volatility and uncertainty. In the face of this we can remain measured and thoughtful, but never complacent, as we reflect on our positioning as a firm. Our fundraising over the last twelve months has anchored our management fees and dry powder for this fundraising cycle; FY26 and potentially FY27 were always going to be low points in our fundraising cycle irrespective of the market environment.

The current geopolitical environment may result in a meaningful long-term shift in economic policy and capital flows. In the short-term, transaction activity is likely to remain relatively low by historical standards, although debt strategies, structured capital and secondaries may be relative bright spots. We will remain very disciplined in our investment process, and are in the fortunate position that none of our strategies are under pressure to deploy capital.

Taking a longer perspective, the range of possible outcomes is wide and I believe the best-positioned private markets managers are those who prioritise investment performance, have strong origination capabilities, and have a range of strategies across asset classes and geographies.

We are proud of our European heritage and of our global presence. We manage capital on behalf of clients from Asia, America and Europe, and today approximately 25% of our capital is deployed in North America and 70% in Europe. Our global footprint combined with our focus on services-centric businesses and our breadth of differentiated investment strategies combine to make ICG an attractive proposition for clients seeking exposure to private markets and for portfolio companies seeking private capital.

I therefore see significant opportunity to grow all our investment strategies in the coming years while maintaining strong investment performance. We are also actively exploring product innovations and other strategic opportunities to enhance our client offering and to generate attractive returns for our shareholders.

Periods of volatility during our 36-year history have always served to prove our ability to raise, invest and deploy capital successfully. In future years, when we look back on today’s environment, I am confident we will be able to say that ICG emerged with its reputation enhanced, its client franchise strengthened, and its competitive positioning reinforced.

Thank you for your continued support.

Notes

1. Refers to the total programme, including co-mingled fund, other associated vehicles such as SMAs and annex sidecar vehicles, and the GP and ICG plc commitments.
2. At time of closing.
3. See page 17.

The post Delivering a milestone year for ICG appeared first on ICG.

Once again, the Board has benefited from hearing shareholder views. I have held a number of meetings with current and potential shareholders during the year and look forward to more in the coming years ─ transparency and communication are important attributes of a well-governed firm. It is clear to me that our business model and position within the global alternative asset management landscape leaves us well positioned for further success; that this sector is likely to continue to attract more interest from the public markets; and that we enjoy strong support from our shareholders to continue to scale up and out.

We remain aware of the regulatory and governance requirements that are incumbent on UK boards. Although your Board is performing well, we are aware that standards evolve and boards must rise to meet new challenges. Our Board review process concluded that your Board continues to operate cohesively and effectively; however we continue to evolve our membership and practices in the light of these standards. The Board has a diverse membership in terms of gender, experience and background; and that diversity of thought contributes to the Board’s effectiveness. A culture of open discussion and listening to different perspectives has been an important component of ICG’s success to date, and will continue to be a priority for your Board.

Your Board believes that the Group should act as a responsible participant in society and that our strategy should reflect this. The impacts of our decisions on different stakeholder groups are uppermost in our minds and you can read more detail on how various stakeholders were considered as part of the Board’s decision-making process on page 35.

Over the course of the year, we have engaged in discussions about the sustainability framework within which our Group operates, carefully considering the most effective ways to address them and ensuring proper Board oversight. In addition, we have placed continued emphasis on our broader stakeholder base, dedicating resources to employee growth through advanced training and development programs, contributing to the community through charitable contributions, and driving forward a variety of inclusion initiatives, including a detailed focus on gender diversity amongst investment staff (explained in detail on page 83). Looking ahead, we remain committed to focusing on our wider societal contributions and the impact of our public presence.

Sonia Baxendale joined the Board during the year and has already begun to be a valued contributor at our meetings. We also look forward to welcoming Robin Lawther to the Board. She will join the Company as a Non-Executive Director on 1 November 2025.

Throughout the year, the Board and its Committees carefully considered the revised Corporate Governance Code and continued to comply with those requirements for the year ended 31 March 2025.

The Board remains grateful for your support throughout the year, and we look forward to continuing our constructive dialogue.

The post High standards of governance for responsible growth appeared first on ICG.

SuperReturn International is the world’s biggest gathering of private capital, with 2,700+ GPs and 1,800+ LPs in attendance. It’s also the most global, with representation from over 70 countries. Record numbers attended in 2024, and this year’s event is expected to be even bigger.

• Who’s attending?
• What’s the agenda?
• Book a meeting with ICG

ICG will be back at SuperReturn in 2025, with a large number of investment professionals, led by CIO and CEO Benoit Durteste. Want to meet? Get in touch.

ICG Attendees

Portfolio Managers and Investment Professionals

• Benoit Durteste ICG CIO and CEO
• Jens Tonn – European Corporate
• Hadj Djemai – European Corporate
• Oliver Gardey – Core Private Equity/LP Secondaries
• Vivien Blossier – Core Private Equity/LP Secondaries
• Allan Marchington – Life Sciences
• Brian Spenner – Preferred Equity
• Liza Lee – Private Equity Fund Investments
• Colm Walsh – Private Equity Fund Investments
• Sridhar Bearelly – Structured Special Opportunities
• Andrea Serra – Strategic Equity
• Adi Bhagwat – Strategic Equity
• Peter Lockhead – Senior Debt Partners
• Mathieu Vigier – Senior Debt Partners

Elsa Palanza, Global Head of Sustainability & ESG (pictured, second-left above), also attends this year’s event.

Arrange a conversation

Attending SuperReturn? Get in touch to arrange a meeting with ICG. We look forward to seeing you in Berlin!

The post Meet ICG at SuperReturn International 2025 appeared first on ICG.

• ICG is growing – by all measures; despite a challenging fundraising environment, we’re managing more client capital than ever, with four successful fund closes in the last twelve months, alongside increasing assets under management (AUM) and new office openings, including Copenhagen in 2023, Toronto in 2024 and Munich in 2025
• Our growth offers opportunities for colleagues to carve out unique career paths in a dynamic ever-evolving environment
• Entrepreneurialism and innovation are core to ICG’s culture; we work in small collaborative teams where employees at all levels can exercise initiative
• We unlock potential and encourage development via exposure to different teams, generous training allowances and support for internal mobility

Our people are integral to our business; central to our success and that of our clients. As ICG continues to scale up and scale out, both strategically and financially, our people are empowered to shape their careers as new opportunities emerge across teams and regions.

“I’ve created my own path here. People at ICG can move between different teams and refine their role based on their interests,” says Alex, a Strategy and Business Management Associate. Following a biochemistry degree, she joined our Client Solutions Group (CSG) in London in 2020, as part of our first ever Graduate cohort. Alex is relocating to New York, taking on a new role to support CSG’s strategic development.

In the three decades since ICG’s IPO on the London Stock Exchange, we’ve evolved into a truly global business with more than $100bn total AUM ^[*] and a headcount of 600+ employees across 21 global locations.

In bringing new and differentiated investment strategies to market, we are growing teams across Europe, North American and Asia Pacific, offering opportunities for colleagues to develop with the business.

“We’re expanding and you really feel like you’re a part of this acceleration,” Alex says. 

A supportive and entrepreneurial environment

ICG’s enterprising culture allows people to shape their own career, by empowering employees – at all levels – to voice their opinions and contribute meaningfully.

“Junior and senior people work together, which isn’t always the case at asset managers or banks. If you share an opinion, people take it seriously,” says Alex. “You have a real voice, and people are open to change.”

ICG’s small teams and lean organisational structure contribute to an agile environment where employees can gain exposure and have impact beyond their own teams. Cooperation is the norm and individuals are encouraged to pursue original ideas and initiatives.

“It’s very entrepreneurial compared to other firms I considered joining, even though it’s a very regulated industry,” says Client Relations Graduate Claudia. “I feel empowered in my team. If I share an idea the answer is most likely going to be ‘Yes, go for it’.”

Empowering employees for long-term success means recognising that not all career paths look the same and not all career paths are linear. At ICG, we don’t expect employees to ‘stay in their lanes’.

“There’s always a chance to move around the business and learn new skills,” says Manager May, who joined our Finance team, before moving to the Balance Sheet Substantiation and Control team and, later, the Reporting and Consolidation team.

ICG’s employee-led networks are a product of our entrepreneurial spirit and one way in which employees are thinking outside the box and beyond their day job. “People from all levels of the business, including very senior staff, are involved in our networks,” says Legal Graduate Hannah. “Heads of departments take time out of their day to be a part of them.” 

This firm-wide approach to innovation has seen ICG deliver creative solutions for clients, positioning us as a frontrunner and first mover. The £11bn recently raised by ICG Strategic Equity ^[*] for investments in what’s known as single asset continuation vehicles – an area ICG has pioneered – is a great example of this. The relationships our many investment teams have with both other firms and prospective portfolio companies can be leveraged to allow teams like Strategic Equity to execute deals of a size that other alternative asset managers struggle to match.

For employees, joining a team that’s ‘ahead of the curve’ presents a compelling opportunity to evolve – not just with the industry, but slightly ahead of it.

Fostering growth and career development

Our collaborative way of working is fundamental to daily operations and the success of our global platform. This cross-functional approach provides employees at all career stages with exposure across the business.

Digital and Content Manager James joined ICG with no prior experience in financial services; yet, in business partnering teams across the firm, has gained valuable industry insights and knowledge. “Being in a Corporate & Business Services team means liaising with colleagues from all departments and – through osmosis if nothing more – you can really improve your financial literacy,” he says.

“There’s a real recognition of how to develop people and offer them opportunities to maximise their abilities,” says Alex. “There’s a culture in which all voices are heard, and of personability and teamwork.”

“ICG helped me realise that my atypical experience and perspectives were strengths, not weaknesses,” adds James.

ICG also facilitates formal training by funding courses and certifications. Every employee receives an annual allowance of £1,500 to put towards professional qualifications and courses. This includes CFAs or management courses, and at later career stages, MBAs and leadership training.

For Executive Assistant Lucia, access to professional courses enabled her to change the scope of her initial position: “I completed an EA course in my first year here, which empowered me to develop into a new role and increase my responsibilities.”

ICG is expanding – on all fronts. This growth allows our people to draw on experiences from different sectors and geographies, as our teams around the world scale up and scale out.

Our continued success comes down to a culture in which people feel empowered to mould their own career paths; and conversely, our success can help them do that.

Go deeper:

• Find out who we are and read our people strategy
• Discover careers at ICG
• Our values, plus culture and inclusion at the firm
• Understand what we do and our investment DNA

* Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results

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In our third year of scaling up our social investment into the communities where we live, work and operate, ICG is proud to demonstrate our commitment and the impact of our strategically focused charitable giving in this report.

We highlight the social impact of our investments as well as the value ICG staff bring by giving back their time and expertise across a range of important global projects.

Benoît Durteste, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer:

Executive Summary

This report highlights ICG’s impact in the second year of its Educational Opportunity Programme and the third year of its Million Meals initiative. These programmes reflect ICG’s commitment to social mobility, educational access, and global food security.

In May 2022, ICG committed £3.75 million to its Educational Opportunity Programme, partnering with four leading charities dedicated to expanding opportunities for young people. In 2024, these initiatives supported over 4,500 young people to increase their social mobility and access to employment opportunities – significantly exceeding initial targets. Since the programme’s inception, more than 14,300 young people have benefited from ICG’s funding through the four strategic partners.

ICG has also expanded its Million Meals programme, providing over £616,000 in financial support to 10 leading charities operating across 12 countries in 2024. This funding has enabled the delivery of 1.43 million meals, reaching over 301,000 people worldwide. In addition to the previous two years, this means that ICG has directly enabled 3.5 million meals to be delivered to those in need globally.

It is also clear that a growing number of ICG colleagues mentor young people through the programmes and dedicate time which, they tell us, enriches their experience of being part of ICG. Over 250 ICG employees volunteered their time on our charitable programmes in 2024, a participation rate of over 35%, well above industry benchmarks.

ICG’s community investment continues to align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2 (Zero Hunger), 4 (Quality Education), and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). Looking ahead to 2025, ICG intends to further its impact with new partnerships with The Social Mobility Foundation in the UK and the Social Impact Alliance for Central & Eastern Europe in Poland, reinforcing its commitment to creating educational and employability opportunities for young people, regardless of their socioeconomic background.

Educational Opportunity & Social Mobility

ICG is passionate about improving social mobility through access to higher education and levelling the playing field for young people entering the private capital investment industry. We believe that this serves an important purpose for individuals and society, and feeds into creating a more equitable and more representative investment industry. The primary focus for ICG’s charitable giving is dedicated to creating opportunities for young people in the key markets in which we operate. In particular, we focus on:

• Secondary education and university access
• Supporting people to succeed at university
• Entry into employment and beyond – widening access to our industry

Our approach provides more than just financial capital, allowing us to leverage the expertise of our colleagues to build stronger relationships and make a bigger and lasting impact.

In 2024 our main partnerships continue to be with SEO London and SEO New York, upReach and The Access Project, with delivery on the ground across the UK, France and the US. We are also delighted to announce two new partnerships for 2025 in the UK and Poland.

In Poland ICG will be supporting the Social Impact Alliance for Central & Eastern Europe to provide financial support to talented students at three major universities who might otherwise face financial barriers to continuing their studies. In the UK ICG is partnering with The Social Mobility Foundation, which will support the scaling of a degree apprenticeship programme to reduce barriers for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds entering into highly skilled careers.

This support feeds into the UN Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 8 – aiming to provide quality education and decent work for all.

Summary of social impact:

• Young People supported: 4,579 young people supported. This represents 11% more beneficiaries than the funding was originally intended to reach. Over 14,300 young people supported since this pillar of ICG’s strategic funding started.
• Completed courses: 1,511 young people have completed courses, and 1,380 have secured a university place, internship, placement or some form of further study progression.
• Volunteering: Nearly 100 ICG staff volunteered on these projects, including support with activity coordination and attendance at events.
• Funding: £690,000 additional funding leveraged across three projects in 2024 alone.

There is evidence of significant increases in confidence, knowledge, skills and understanding of requirements to succeed in their selected field of employment.

Million Meals Initiative

In 2022, ICG launched its Million Meals initiative to support charities providing free meals to individuals and families in need due to the cost-of-living crisis and food insecurity. In that time, through our partners around the world, ICG has funded 3.5 million meals.

The initiative is growing in scale each year, with a total investment over three years of £1.69 million. In its first year the initiative provided a total of £500,000 funding to six charities globally; year two of the initiative provided over £550,000 of new funding across eight leading charities worldwide; year three has provided over £616,000 to 10 charities across the globe.

This year, again working with high quality delivery partner charities, the programme enabled those organisations to source and deliver food to nearly 8,000 community organisations working on the ground to support vulnerable people across 12 countries – with 1.4 million meals provided this year alone to at least 300,000 people.

ICG is proud to announce a new partnership with Eat Up Australia, which will deliver over 84,000 meals to school children in metro and regional areas across the country in 2025. ‘Thanks to the generous support of ICG, we have been able to grow our impact toward meeting an increasing need for lunch support at schools. We are extremely proud to be working together with ICG as we feed hungry kids across Australia so they can learn, grow and succeed’ – Elise Cook, CEO, Eat Up Australia. This project directly responds to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 2, aiming to eliminate food insecurity and hunger.

Read the full report

This social impact report has been produced by Bean Research, working alongside The Giving Department. Bean Research helps organisations create and measure social value, The Giving Department helps companies deliver disproportionate social impact.

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