About
About Oaktree
Oaktree's mission is to deliver superior investment results with risk under control and to conduct our business with the highest integrity.
About Oaktree's SICAV Funds
Oaktree is a leading global alternative investment manager with expertise in credit and the public equity of issuers in less-efficient markets. Oaktree began offering select strategies via SICAV funds in 2003 and over time has built a suite of Luxembourg-domiciled funds across various credit and equity strategies focused on developed and emerging markets.
Today Oaktree provides both UCITS and non-UCITS funds. For each fund, Oaktree has extensive investment resources, including the skills, experience and expertise of its investment professionals throughout the firm globally. Oaktree's SICAV funds comply with Luxembourg CSSF regulations, a set of standards internationally recognized for their high level of investor protection.
About Oaktree
For more than 25 years Oaktree has focused on putting investors first and delivering superior investment returns while keeping risk under control. Oaktree was founded in 1995 by a group of individuals who had been investing together since the mid-1980s. We have built our reputation on our contrarian, value-oriented and risk-controlled approach to investing. Today Oaktree has $189 billion in assets under management and more than 1,200 employees globally, including in Los Angeles (headquarters), London, New York, Hong Kong and Luxembourg.
Oaktree's competitive advantages include its experienced team of investment professionals, an integrated global platform and a unifying investment philosophy. We adhere to a set of core business principles that speak to our commitment to best practices in investing, serving our clients and managing our business.
$189 billion in assets under management1
- ■ Credit 74%
- ■ Real Assets 12%
- ■ Private Equity 10%
- ■ Listed Equities 4%
25 offices globally2
393 investment professionals
28 -year track record
As of 31 December 2023
1 References to total "assets under management" or "AUM" represent assets managed by Oaktree and a proportionate amount of the AUM reported by DoubleLine Capital LP ("DoubleLine Capital"), in which Oaktree owns a 20% minority interest. Oaktree's methodology for calculating AUM includes (i) the net asset value (NAV) of assets managed directly by Oaktree, (ii) the leverage on which management fees are charged, (iii) undrawn capital that Oaktree is entitled to call from investors in Oaktree funds pursuant to their capital commitments, (iv) for collateralized loan obligation vehicles ("CLOs"), the aggregate par value of collateral assets and principal cash, (v) for publicly-traded business development companies, gross assets (including assets acquired with leverage), net of cash, and (vi) Oaktree's pro rata portion (20%) of the AUM reported by DoubleLine Capital. This calculation of AUM is not based on the definitions of AUM that may be set forth in agreements governing the investment funds, vehicles or accounts managed and is not calculated pursuant to regulatory definitions.
2 Includes offices of affiliates of Oaktree-managed funds.
3 Excludes proportionate amount of DoubleLine Capital AUM and 17Capital AUM.
Oaktree's Defining Characteristics
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Oaktree provides a range of specialized investment strategies, many of which benefit from the experience, leadership and reputation of the firm's portfolio managers, supported by dedicated teams of research analysts.
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Oaktree has an experienced team of portfolio managers and other senior investment professionals.
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As patient investors, Oaktree investment professionals apply disciplined research techniques. Macroeconomic forecasting is not critical to our bottom-up value approach to identifying investment opportunities.
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Oaktree believes a superior investment track record is best built on a high batting average rather than a mix of brilliant successes and dismal failures.
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Oaktree’s focus on putting investors first means conducting our business with the highest integrity and communicating clearly to strengthen relationships with them.
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Oaktree is guided by a unifying investment philosophy and a core set of business principles, dating back to the firm’s founding in 1995.
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Oaktree provides a range of specialized investment strategies, many of which benefit from the experience, leadership and reputation of the firm's portfolio managers, supported by dedicated teams of research analysts.
-
Oaktree has an experienced team of portfolio managers and other senior investment professionals.
-
As patient investors, Oaktree investment professionals apply disciplined research techniques. Macroeconomic forecasting is not critical to our bottom-up value approach to identifying investment opportunities.
-
Oaktree believes a superior investment track record is best built on a high batting average rather than a mix of brilliant successes and dismal failures.
-
Oaktree’s focus on putting investors first means conducting our business with the highest integrity and communicating clearly to strengthen relationships with them.
-
Oaktree is guided by a unifying investment philosophy and a core set of business principles, dating back to the firm’s founding in 1995.
Investment Philosophy
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Our goal is not superior investment performance standalone, but superior performance with less-than-commensurate risk. Above average gains in good times are not necessarily proof of a manager's skill; it takes superior performance in bad times to prove that those good-time gains were earned through skill, not simply the acceptance of above average risk. Thus, rather than merely searching for prospective profits, we place the highest priority on preventing losses. It is our overriding belief that, especially in the opportunistic markets in which we work, "if we avoid the losers, the winners will take care of themselves."
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Oscillating between top-quartile results in good years and bottom-quartile results in bad years is not acceptable to us. It is our belief that a superior record is best built on a high batting average rather than a mix of brilliant successes and dismal failures.
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We feel that skill and hard work can lead to a "knowledge advantage," and thus to potentially superior investment results. But we do not believe this can occur in so-called efficient markets, where large numbers of participants share roughly equal access to information and act in an unbiased fashion to incorporate that information into asset prices. We believe there are less efficient markets in which dispassionate application of skill and effort should pay off for our clients, and it is only in such markets that we invest.
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Specialization offers the surest path to the results we, and our clients, seek. Thus, we insist that each of our portfolios do just one thing — practice a single investment specialty — and do it absolutely as well as it can be done. We establish the charter for each investment specialty as explicitly as possible and do not deviate. In this way, there are no surprises; our actions and performance always follow directly from the job we're hired to do. The availability of specialized portfolios enables Oaktree clients interested in a single asset class to get exactly what they want; clients interested in more than one class can combine our portfolios for the mix they desire.
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We believe consistently excellent performance can only be achieved through superior knowledge of companies and their securities, not through attempts at predicting what is in store for the economy, interest rates or the securities markets. Therefore, our investment process is entirely bottom-up, based on proprietary, company-specific research. We use overall portfolio structuring as a defensive tool to help us avoid dangerous concentration, rather than as an aggressive weapon expected to enable us to hold more of the things that do best.
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Because we do not believe in the predictive ability required to correctly time markets, we keep portfolios fully invested whenever attractively priced assets can be bought. Concern about the market climate may cause us to tilt toward more defensive investments, increase selectivity or act more deliberately, but we never move to raise cash. Clients hire us to invest in specific market niches, and we must never fail to do our job. Holding investments that decline in price is unpleasant, but missing out on returns because we failed to buy what we were hired to buy is inexcusable.
-
Our goal is not superior investment performance standalone, but superior performance with less-than-commensurate risk. Above average gains in good times are not necessarily proof of a manager's skill; it takes superior performance in bad times to prove that those good-time gains were earned through skill, not simply the acceptance of above average risk. Thus, rather than merely searching for prospective profits, we place the highest priority on preventing losses. It is our overriding belief that, especially in the opportunistic markets in which we work, "if we avoid the losers, the winners will take care of themselves."
-
Oscillating between top-quartile results in good years and bottom-quartile results in bad years is not acceptable to us. It is our belief that a superior record is best built on a high batting average rather than a mix of brilliant successes and dismal failures.
-
We feel that skill and hard work can lead to a "knowledge advantage," and thus to potentially superior investment results. But we do not believe this can occur in so-called efficient markets, where large numbers of participants share roughly equal access to information and act in an unbiased fashion to incorporate that information into asset prices. We believe there are less efficient markets in which dispassionate application of skill and effort should pay off for our clients, and it is only in such markets that we invest.
-
Specialization offers the surest path to the results we, and our clients, seek. Thus, we insist that each of our portfolios do just one thing — practice a single investment specialty — and do it absolutely as well as it can be done. We establish the charter for each investment specialty as explicitly as possible and do not deviate. In this way, there are no surprises; our actions and performance always follow directly from the job we're hired to do. The availability of specialized portfolios enables Oaktree clients interested in a single asset class to get exactly what they want; clients interested in more than one class can combine our portfolios for the mix they desire.
-
We believe consistently excellent performance can only be achieved through superior knowledge of companies and their securities, not through attempts at predicting what is in store for the economy, interest rates or the securities markets. Therefore, our investment process is entirely bottom-up, based on proprietary, company-specific research. We use overall portfolio structuring as a defensive tool to help us avoid dangerous concentration, rather than as an aggressive weapon expected to enable us to hold more of the things that do best.
-
Because we do not believe in the predictive ability required to correctly time markets, we keep portfolios fully invested whenever attractively priced assets can be bought. Concern about the market climate may cause us to tilt toward more defensive investments, increase selectivity or act more deliberately, but we never move to raise cash. Clients hire us to invest in specific market niches, and we must never fail to do our job. Holding investments that decline in price is unpleasant, but missing out on returns because we failed to buy what we were hired to buy is inexcusable.
Business Principles
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Our goal is excellence in investing. To us, this means achieving attractive returns without commensurate risk, an imbalance which can only be achieved in markets that are not "efficient." Although we strive for superior returns, our first priority is that our actions produce consistency, protection of capital, and superior performance in bad times.
-
Adding value in our markets requires a "knowledge advantage" that can come only from proprietary, in-depth research. We have dedicated a staff of highly skilled specialists to each market and created a research methodology that is consistently applied. Our research revolves around enumerating the elements required for success and identifying investment candidates through which we seek to satisfy those requirements.
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In order to achieve commonality of interests with our clients, we pay strict attention to potential conflicts of interests, avoiding them if possible and dealing fairly with them if not. We put clients' interests ahead of our own and treat all clients equally. It is our fundamental operating principle that if all of our practices were to become known, there must be no one with grounds for complaint.
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Our personnel practices must contribute to the achievement of our clients' objectives. A harmonious workplace and a spirit of cooperation are indispensable; personnel turnover, office politics and unhealthy competition are to be guarded against. The fruits of our labor will always be shared broadly and equitably with our staff. To that end, employee stock ownership and firm-wide profit participation are key.
-
Communication with clients must meet their needs and strengthen our relationships with them. We want every client to thoroughly understand our philosophy, approach, actions and results. If what we do ever comes as a surprise to a client, then we have failed in this regard. In reporting our performance, we accurately state our achievements, neither hiding behind excuses for losses nor taking credit for serendipitous gains.
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Our management fee arrangements should compensate us fairly for the value we add and advance a constructive business relationship. Fee arrangements should motivate us to act solely in our clients' best interests; they should be fair, competitive and explicit. All accounts of comparable size must pay comparable fees for the same service.
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When adding new products to Oaktree's list of investment strategies, we consider it far more important to avoid mistakes than to capture every opportunity. In each case, our decision to create a new product is based on:
- identification of an inefficient market with the potential for attractive returns,
- conviction that the market can be exploited in a limited-risk fashion, and
- access to an investment team fully capable of producing the results we seek.
Because of the high priority placed on assuring that these requirements are met, we prefer that new Oaktree products represent "step-outs" into highly related fields undertaken with people with whom we have had extensive first-hand experience.
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We are committed to acting responsibly with our stakeholders and society at large. Oaktree (a) incorporates Environmental, Social and Governance considerations in its investment and business decision-making; (b) fosters an inclusive work environment that embraces diversity; and (c) supports the communities in which we live and operate.
-
Our firm’s profitability must stem from doing all of the above. Oaktree is run for the benefit of its clients and their constituencies, as well as for its owners and employees. Profit without performance, bigness for its own sake and prosperity through cost cutting are all explicitly rejected. Our earnings should grow if we achieve excellence in investing... but only then.
-
Our goal is excellence in investing. To us, this means achieving attractive returns without commensurate risk, an imbalance which can only be achieved in markets that are not "efficient." Although we strive for superior returns, our first priority is that our actions produce consistency, protection of capital, and superior performance in bad times.
-
Adding value in our markets requires a "knowledge advantage" that can come only from proprietary, in-depth research. We have dedicated a staff of highly skilled specialists to each market and created a research methodology that is consistently applied. Our research revolves around enumerating the elements required for success and identifying investment candidates through which we seek to satisfy those requirements.
-
In order to achieve commonality of interests with our clients, we pay strict attention to potential conflicts of interests, avoiding them if possible and dealing fairly with them if not. We put clients' interests ahead of our own and treat all clients equally. It is our fundamental operating principle that if all of our practices were to become known, there must be no one with grounds for complaint.
-
Our personnel practices must contribute to the achievement of our clients' objectives. A harmonious workplace and a spirit of cooperation are indispensable; personnel turnover, office politics and unhealthy competition are to be guarded against. The fruits of our labor will always be shared broadly and equitably with our staff. To that end, employee stock ownership and firm-wide profit participation are key.
-
Communication with clients must meet their needs and strengthen our relationships with them. We want every client to thoroughly understand our philosophy, approach, actions and results. If what we do ever comes as a surprise to a client, then we have failed in this regard. In reporting our performance, we accurately state our achievements, neither hiding behind excuses for losses nor taking credit for serendipitous gains.
-
Our management fee arrangements should compensate us fairly for the value we add and advance a constructive business relationship. Fee arrangements should motivate us to act solely in our clients' best interests; they should be fair, competitive and explicit. All accounts of comparable size must pay comparable fees for the same service.
-
When adding new products to Oaktree's list of investment strategies, we consider it far more important to avoid mistakes than to capture every opportunity. In each case, our decision to create a new product is based on:
- identification of an inefficient market with the potential for attractive returns,
- conviction that the market can be exploited in a limited-risk fashion, and
- access to an investment team fully capable of producing the results we seek.
Because of the high priority placed on assuring that these requirements are met, we prefer that new Oaktree products represent "step-outs" into highly related fields undertaken with people with whom we have had extensive first-hand experience.
-
We are committed to acting responsibly with our stakeholders and society at large. Oaktree (a) incorporates Environmental, Social and Governance considerations in its investment and business decision-making; (b) fosters an inclusive work environment that embraces diversity; and (c) supports the communities in which we live and operate.
-
Our firm’s profitability must stem from doing all of the above. Oaktree is run for the benefit of its clients and their constituencies, as well as for its owners and employees. Profit without performance, bigness for its own sake and prosperity through cost cutting are all explicitly rejected. Our earnings should grow if we achieve excellence in investing... but only then.
Responsibility
