Transcription of The Stock Network Interview with TermPlus by Pengana Capital Group (ASX:PCG), Dean Weinbren, Managing Executive at TermPlus
Lel Smits: Pengana Capital Group is a diversified funds management group and the group behind the Termplus investment platform. Termplus is an online term account provider designed to give Australian investors monthly income generated through diversified access to the global private credit sector, a sector that has traditionally been the domain of larger institutions. Built around diversification, floating rate income and ease of use, Termplus reflects the changing realities of income investing for Australian investors.
Ahead of Wholesale Investors Emergence 2026 conference, I’m joined by Dean Weinbren, Managing Executive at Termplus to discuss how income portfolios are changing, why global private credit has become increasingly relevant for Australian investors and what investors should be thinking about as they reassess how their money works for them. Dean, welcome to the Stock Network.
Dean Weinbren: Thanks for having me, Lel.
Lel Smits: Great to chat. Now with market volatility and uncertainty persisting, Australian investors have increasingly favoured income orientated strategies with more stable return profiles. Dean, what do you see as the key drivers behind this shift in investor behaviour?
Dean Weinbren: Lel, you’re totally right. I mean, what we’re seeing is a shift in how investors are weighing up returns versus volatility, or even the potential for volatility. Australia has an investor base, which naturally means shorter investment time horizons. And so there is decreasing tolerance for short term swings in stock market volatility and growing focus on generating longer term, more reliable and consistent income streams.
For many people, income isn’t just an outcome investing anymore. It’s a real part of their financial planning.
Lel Smits: Excellent. And really, parts of the traditional income universe, including bank hybrids, have contracted or disappeared altogether now. To what extent, really, do you think this structural change accelerated investor demand for alternative income solutions?
Dean Weinbren: Yeah, I think that’s definitely contributed to an increased demand for robust income solutions. Hybrids have played an important role in a lot of portfolios for a long time.
But the landscape for investment options that sit between cash and equities has changed and is changing. But the demand for dependable income hasn’t disappeared. What’s changed is where that income can realistically come from.
And that’s one of the gaps that we find we’re starting to fill for some of our customers.
Lel Smits: Brilliant. And TermPlus delivers monthly income sourced from the global private credit market, an asset class which really was long used by institutions, but relatively new for Australian investors at scale. How do you explain what global private credit is and also how it differs really from the Australian private credit market to someone encountering it perhaps for the first time?
Dean Weinbren: Sure. So there’s two parts to that question. I think first, it’s important to just quickly define private credit, whether it’s Australian or global. Private credit can really be simplified into three words. Non-bank lending. Maybe that’s two words.
So that’s lending that’s done outside of the banking system. These are contractual loans, typically with regular interest payments, some securities built in, and they’re often done at a floating rate. So rather than investors relying on share market prices moving in their favour, returns come from businesses that are servicing their debt.
For many investors, that difference is important because the driver does feel more tangible. In regard to the global private credit market and how it compares in the context of the Australian private credit market, probably the two quick key differentiators between Australian and global to think about are scale and diversification. The Australian banking sector runs pretty efficiently.
And so Australian banks make up about 90% of the local lending market. That means that non-bank lending or private credit makes up only about 10% of the lending market here in Australia. If we look across to the US, that picture is completely flipped on its head.
Private credit makes up about 84% of the lending market in the US. That’s a big investment sector with lots of scale. And so from a diversification perspective, in Australia with only 10% of the lending taking place outside of the banks, what you generally find is that the Australian private credit market is pretty concentrated into the property sector.
That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with investing in Australian private credit. There are a lot of good products out there in the market, but investors do need to be mindful of the potential concentration risk that comes with it. When you look globally, with non-bank lending making up 84% of the much bigger lending market, it’s a very different picture.
For us specifically, we operate in the corporate middle market, which is made up of established mid-sized businesses across predominantly the US and Europe. And that’s spread across a wide range of sectors, industries, and economic drivers. Just the portfolio that runs the Termplus engine alone is diversified across over 4,000 of these types of global middle market companies across so many different sectors.
For Australian investors, that diversification matters. Income is coming from many different places rather than a narrow part of the market. And that tends to make the investment experience more balanced and more predictable over time.
Lel Smits: Excellent. And Dean, private markets are often perceived as complex, also perhaps difficult to assess. How has Termplus been structured to simplify access while also maintaining that institutional grade investment discipline?
Dean Weinbren: Sure. Well, first and foremost, we obviously started with the foundations and ensuring that we set up a high quality, highly diversified and professionally constructed investment engine that can drive the returns for our customers. And we do that in part through our association with MRSA, who’s the investment consultant. But what we also did is we started by asking what this should actually feel like for an investor.
Most people don’t want to manage complexity on their own. And so the focus for us is also on delivering clear information, straightforward access, direct human to human customer service. And of course, this goes without saying, it’s institutional quality returns to Termplus account holders.
It’s a managed product. So all of the complexity sits behind the scenes, and we put a lot of attention to the ultimate experience that our customers have at Termplus. And Dean, no asset class is risk free and investor education, of course, remains critical.
How do you frame risk in a balanced and transparent way, also while setting realistic expectations for investors? By being upfront about it. Investors understand that risk exists at different levels in different investments. What really builds confidence is understanding where that risk sits, how it’s managed, and whether it makes sense for what you’re trying to achieve as an investor.
We’ve put a lot of work into structuring an income solution where the potential for risk is managed using various features of both our portfolio and the account features at the product level.
Lel Smits: Dean, really appreciate the update and look forward to hearing more in the year ahead.
Dean Weinbren: Awesome. Thanks a lot.
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