Fidelity Announces the Launch of Its First Business Development Company

Fidelity Investments announced the expansion of its rapidly growing alternative investments (alts) product lineup with the launch of the Fidelity Private Credit Fund, a business development company (BDC). The new BDC is available for individual investors and distributed through financial advisors and intermediaries in most states.

Fidelity Private Credit Fund will be managed by Fidelity Diversifying Solutions LLC, an investment adviser that was established to support the growth of Fidelity's alternative investment capabilities and development of alternative products and solutions.

"With the launch of Fidelity Private Credit Fund, Fidelity leverages the depth and breadth of our credit-focused resources to offer our clients an income-oriented strategy in the private credit markets," said David Gaito, portfolio manager of Fidelity Private Credit Fund and head of Direct Lending at Fidelity Investments. "We continue to see significant growth in the private credit market and Fidelity's direct lending team aims to use our extensive network to access high credit quality investment opportunities."

Fidelity established its direct lending business in 2021 and the team, including portfolio managers David Gaito, Therese Icuss, and Jeffrey Scott, continues to grow. The portfolio management team, with 20-plus average years of middle market lending experience, has sourced, underwritten, or managed diverse credit and lending teams in a variety of market environments. The team is backed by Fidelity's 50-plus years in the credit markets and more than $620 billioni in credit investments under management.

"Our portfolio management team is able to leverage the resources of our globally integrated investment organization and the breadth of Fidelity's retail and institutional distribution businesses, while we continue to expand and strengthen our direct lending investment capabilities and team," continued Gaito.