The company confirmed it has acted as joint lead arranger of a $345 million senior secured credit facility supporting financial advice and accounting group AZ NGA.
Barings’ finance deal comes alongside the existing $240 million investment AZ NGA received from Oaktree Capital Management last December.
Since it was established in 2014, AZ NGA has expanded its network of independently branded partner firms to more than 30 and collectively manages over $15 billion of assets under advice, as of August 2024.
The announcement marks Barings’ first deal with Oaktree in Australia, commented Justin Hooley, head of Asia-Pacific private credit at Barings.
“AZ NGA and the leadership team have a proven track record and have established themselves as the growth and succession partner of choice for high-performing financial advice and accounting firms. This investment is a continuation of our global support for the sector, which includes a number of comparable investments across Europe and the US,” Hooley said.
“We are excited to partner with Oaktree who has extensive expertise in this sector, and we are uniquely positioned to further support the expansion of the platform. We look forward to collaborating with Oaktree on this and future transactions.”
AZ NGA chief executive Paul Barrett previously said in December that the firm has “ambitious goals” to triple in size over the 3–5 years through a combination of mergers and acquisitions and organic growth.
Following the Oaktree investment that made the asset manager AZ NGA’s largest shareholder, Azimut management and business owners retained a “strategic stake” in the company.
Barings has approximately US$421 billion ($676 billion) in assets under management, as of 31 December 2024. The firm partners with institutional, insurance and intermediary clients to provide flexible financing solutions.
