Robert Cohen, head of DoubleLine’s Global Development Credit team, analyzes private credit, including its transient venture beyond middle-market lending into large-borrower underwriting during the pandemic-ushered corporate capital vacuum and the decline of that timely trade in the wake of the full recovery of the syndicated loan and high yield bond markets. In 2020-2023, private credit afforded asset managers and other lenders “an opportunity to generate substantial alpha beyond the riskiness of these credits,” he notes. “In fact, Doubleline participated in this. We made loans to companies – in a couple of cases, companies that were previously investment grade credits that were downgraded to below investment grade, companies which had a difficult time accessing capital because the markets were shut down.” Mr. Cohen shares his perspectives in a July 18, 2024, interview, with DoubleLine Product Specialist Chris Stegmann.
Mr. Cohen joined DoubleLine’s Global Developed Credit (“GDC”) Group in 2012. He is a Portfolio Manager and the Director of the GDC group. He is also a permanent member of the Fixed Income Asset Allocation Committee. Prior to DoubleLine, Mr. Cohen was a Senior Credit Analyst at West Gate Horizons Advisors (and its predecessor ING Capital Advisors) where he worked as an Analyst covering bank loans and high yield bonds. Prior to ING, he was an Assistant Vice President in the Asset Management Group of Union Bank where he managed a diversified portfolio of leveraged loans as well as a portfolio of CDO securities. Previous to Union Bank, he was an Associate Director of Corporate and Investment Banking at the Bank of Montreal in its Natural Resources Group. Mr. Cohen holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Arizona and an MBA from the University of Southern California. He is a CFA® charterholder.
