BNP Paribas Wealth Management CIO says private debt is 'money for old rope'

(Reuters) -The surge in investment in private debt is "more money for old rope", BNP Paribas Wealth Management global chief investment officer Edmund Shing said on Tuesday.

Shing said private assets were an essential for clients with large enough portfolios that could lock up their capital over a longer time frame, but were "not for everybody."

"Everyone is look at selling these funds as if it were something new," he told the audience at a conference in Monaco.

"It's more money for old rope," he said. "The danger here is you have no idea of the default cycle, of the credit rating. We do not know how well they can manage that. And I think yes, there could be some accidents along the way."

Asset manager Blackstone told the Financial Times in a report published on Tuesday it plans to double the size of its European private credit fund in the next year after raising 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion) to invest in this pocket of the market.

The private credit market, where investment funds lend private equity portfolio businesses and other companies money, has boomed in recent years and is estimated to be worth some $1.7 trillion.

($1 = 0.9328 euros)

(Reporting by Nell Mackenzie; Writing by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Louise Heavens and Susan Fenton)