Portfolio Manager, Direct Private Investments
This Portfolio Manager role will be responsible for the evaluation, recommendation and on-going monitoring of MassMutual Investment Management?s portfolio of direct private investments, including private debt. The Direct Private Investments team is a newly created team within MassMutual Investment Management (?IM?)?s Alternative Investments group. It focusses upon customized proprietary secured loans to major investment organizations backed by a range of assets and has originated $7 billion in private direct investments over the last four years. These loans are highly negotiated with the borrowers and may be retained solely for MassMutual?s own portfolio or participated to similar institutional investors. The team is small and highly collaborative and this role will become a critical full-time member of the team. This position will support all aspects of the Direct Private Investments platform, including but not limited to, sourcing and underwriting investment opportunities, portfolio monitoring, reporting, forecasting and communications, analytics and modeling, and supporting/leading special projects.
The Alternative Investments team operates as part of MassMutual Investment Management.? IM manages the asset allocation and asset liability management for MassMutual?s $180 billion General Investment Account (?GIA?).? IM monitors and oversees the performance of both affiliated and unaffiliated managers for the GIA and directly selects certain opportunistic and strategic Alternative Investments for the GIA. This role will also support analysis, negotiation and execution of some co-investments and direct investments.
JOB ROLE/RESPONSIBILITIES:
- The primary responsibility of the Portfolio Manager is to originate, execute and assist in the structuring, negotiation, approval and closing of complex transactions that create attractive investments for MassMutual?s GIA while addressing the unique financing needs of our strategic business partner customers, who are typically world-class alternative investment managers or specialty finance companies.
The Portfolio Manager will be expected to:
- Actively participate in the negotiation of financing terms and their memorialization in deal term sheets; the drafting, negotiation and review of transaction documentation; the preparation of investment approval documentation and working with MassMutual?s operations and on-boarding teams to understand and structure around each transaction?s unique implementation issues.
- Leverage their network within the alternative investments market to originate risk-appropriate portfolio lending transactions.
- Demonstrate extremely strong analytical, modeling and problem-solving skills. The Portfolio Manager will be expected to understand the nature of the assets for which our customer is seeking financing and be able to create situation-specific risk analysis models based upon the target collateral and negotiated financing structure, and to maintain those models post-close to facilitate ongoing credit and other risk monitoring of our borrowers and collateral pools.
- Conduct initial and on-going research, analysis and due diligence of proposed strategic business partners and understand the risks associated with their respective businesses. Analytical responsibilities may also extend to evaluating individual bond or loan assets or private equity, private debt or other private placement investment funds that serve as collateral for proposed transactions.
- Conduct the periodic delivery and review of aggregated information via data entry & automation (i.e. manager rating scorecards, performance reporting, due diligence summaries, collateral summaries and transaction performance).??
- Manage due diligence interactions with current and prospective managers, such as gathering information, coordinating communication, conducting & coordinating site visits.
- Consult to other departments within MassMutual to help them understand how transaction-specific investment issues and due diligence findings impact their areas of concern.
IDEAL CANDIDATE:
This is a role that will tend to present many new and one-off problems and issues for the Portfolio Manager to address. The successful candidate will have natural curiosity and a love of learning, relish the challenge of solving puzzles and intellectual challenges and be comfortable with the ambiguity presented by new situations.? At the same time, the successful candidate will naturally formulate answers or solutions to those ambiguous situations based upon empirical data. While this is not an actuarial role, a basic comfort with the meaning of probability distributions will be essential to making decisive decisions within an uncertain environment. Similarly, while this is not a legal role, but the Portfolio Manager must be comfortable leading the formulation and review of legal documentation for their transactions. A strong understanding of illiquid private assets and their own market relationships are critical for success in this role.
THE BASIC REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor?s degree with at least 8 years of relevant investment or finance experience required
- Prior experience investing in private equity, private real estate, or private credit
- Demonstrated professional network within the alternative investments asset class
- Professional experience working on complex negotiated transactions
- Candidate should be comfortable working with basic concepts of leverage in a corporate debt context (e.g., Debt/EBITDA and FCC) and basic concepts of leverage in a real estate debt context (e.g., LTV, DSC, Property Debt Yield)
- Candidate should have a somewhat deep understanding of the roles, responsibilities and motivations of the primary participants in the investment management business
- Strong communication skills, both written and oral
- Strong computer skills including experience with financial applications
- Strong analytical and problem solving skill set
- Ability to work closely with portfolio managers, senior management, operations teams, internal legal counsel and outside legal professionals supporting program
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to work in a fast paced, team environment
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Excel, Power Point and Word,; VBA and Visio experience a plus)
- Ability and openness to understanding operational, accounting, and legal aspects of investments
- JD or prior experience negotiating credit agreement documents strongly preferred
- CFA strongly preferred; CAIA is a plus
- 50% travel
WORK LOCATION: Boston (Fan Pier), New York. Will entertain remote work arrangement with regular travel to Boston
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