The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 18 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 1 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Clarke argues institutional asset management has surprisingly low barriers to entry
“The barriers to this industry in institutional asset management are so low. Anybody can start a fund. They can call up whomever it is, pension fund, and try and get meetings.”
Clarke argues immense scale generates alpha in alternative asset management
“I used to think that you had to be small in the alternative space to generate alpha. But I've found that there's alpha in scale. There's relevancy in scale. When you're large, you command a tremendous amount of attention from people. You can't do that if you'r…”
Clarke reveals institutional fundraising requires a 15-to-1 conversation-to-ask ratio
“The conversation to ask ratio is about 15 to one. 15 conversations to one ask.”
Clarke notes alternative asset management is consolidating like traditional managers did
“A lot of things I see them do are things that the alternative industry is going towards because the alternative industry is scaling quickly. The consolidation of relationships is happening. It's very much following the blueprint of what things were like back i…”
Clarke: Manager selection is a third-derivative decision for institutional asset allocators
“When people are doing this strategic asset allocation, you're about the third derivative from choice. Their first thing is, what's our funding ratio? What's our actual rate of return? What should the portfolio look like? How should we populate it? And then who…”
Clarke notes massive asset managers rarely share economics compared to smaller firms
“It's very tough to do that, to give away those economics when you're half a trillion dollars, but when you're small and scrappy, You'll do it.”
Clarke observes performance dispersion across direct lending managers is currently tight
“Sometimes when you get in an area like direct lending, recently the performance dispersion has been very tight.”
Clarke predicts Australia's superannuation industry will become the world's second-largest
“The Australian superannuation industry is going to be the second largest in the world.”
Clarke observes US pension funds shifting toward a total portfolio allocation approach
“A lot of the US pensions now, some of them are considering this total portfolio approach. They've been very public about it. Moving strategic allocation to total portfolio approach. There are organizations that have done that globally for years.”
Clarke notes direct lending was viewed as episodic, $50M mandates in 2017
“At the time, direct lending was considered more of a strategic allocation. It was an allocation that people did episodically. There was dislocation spreads. They tapped into a fund, and then they got out when there was a normalization. You never saw these big …”
Clarke reveals Blue Owl serves approximately 900 institutional clients globally
“And the institutional, well, I think we got 900 of them.”
Blue Owl covers 750 private equity sponsors to guarantee deal flow
“To be relevant to private equity sponsors, and we cover 750 of them, to regularly see that deal flow, to be very judicious about the loans you do, you have to be big.”
Clarke states Blue Owl manages roughly 5,000 bespoke global institutional situations
“We deal on the institutional side with about four or 5000 idiosyncratic situations globally.”
Clarke notes Blue Owl Capital now manages $260 billion in assets
“But now they're part of a two hundred and sixty billion dollar organization.”
Clarke admits he under-resourced Blue Owl's early international expansion efforts
“The other thing that I made a mistake on was I probably didn't add resources as quickly as I should have. An organization should never become bloated, but I probably over-indexed that I had to play catch up for a little bit. Not perfect, but I think we got the…”
Clarke reveals 90 percent of Blue Owl's capital is permanent
“We're in an envious position that 90% of our capital is permanent.”