D.E. Shaw Looks to Capitalize on Credit with Alkali Fund Launch

D.E. Shaw, the multi-strategy quantitative hedge fund behemoth, is raising funds for a new strategy aimed at capitalizing on less liquid credit and credit-related opportunities in both private and public markets.

The D.E. Shaw Alkali Fund VI will be managed by the firm’s private credit team, which will work closely with the firm’s other public credit and asset-backed credit teams.

Rich McKinney, Marianna Fassinotti, and Seth Charnow will co-manage the portfolio of the multi-strategy fund, which will comprise corporate debt, structured credit and synthetic securitization, and litigation investments.

The predecessor fund, Alkali Fund V, targeted mainly stressed and distressed assets, financings, and special situations opportunities, with investment horizons of up to five years.

In 2021, that strategy produced almost $1 billion in capital commitments, including more than $100 million from D.E. Shaw’s own organizations, principals, and employees, as well as $450 million from outside investors.

D.E. Shaw, which today manages more than $60 billion in assets, raised $1.1 billion in combined commitments in February for two new private markets-focused strategies, the D.E. Shaw Voltaic Fund and the D.E. Shaw Diopter Fund.

The Alkali funds, along with the D. E. Shaw Diopter Fund, comprise the D. E. Shaw group’s private credit fund platform, which has over $3 billion in invested and committed capital as of January of this year.