Oaktree’s Howard Marks warns of crunch time for private credit

Howard Marks, the co-founder of $172bn investment group Oaktree Capital Management, has warned that the boom in private credit will soon be tested as higher interest rates and slower economic growth heap pressure on corporate America.

The 77-year-old billionaire told the Financial Times that big asset managers had competed aggressively to lend to the largest private equity groups as money poured into their coffers in 2020 and 2021, raising questions over the due diligence the funds conducted when they agreed to provide multibillion-dollar loans.