Key Takeaways
- • Knox Funds, a Brisbane-based private credit firm operating for 30 years, says its conservative "boring is beautiful" approach is positioned to hold up as ASIC scrutiny of the sector intensifies.
- • According to ASIC cited in the article, Australia's private credit market has grown about 500 per cent over the past decade and now exceeds $200 billion.
- • Knox executive director for lending Marnie Woodhead attributes recent sector problems partly to a surge of new capital that pressures lenders to deploy funds quickly, sometimes into riskier deals.
- • Knox stays within its core South-East Queensland market and says it completes and sells projects itself when necessary to return investor capital.
Summary
The Australian private credit market has grown roughly 500 per cent over the past decade and now exceeds $200 billion, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), as recent problems have exposed weaknesses in the sector. The article cites the Bathla collapse as a development that has drawn media attention to the industry.
Knox Funds, formerly GPS, is a Brisbane-based private credit investment firm that has operated for 30 years. Executive director for lending Marnie Woodhead, who with colleague Shelby Clark won The Urban Developer's 2026 Urban Leader Future Leader Award for Building and Consultancy, described the firm's approach in an interview on the Blueprint podcast.
Woodhead said the influx of new institutional-scale money into private credit has created pressure. In her account, some lenders write deals simply because capital sitting unused costs the business, which can lead to riskier lending. When this occurs, private credit lenders are sometimes forced to take on projects themselves. Woodhead said this is not new and happens regularly in the industry.
Knox's stated response is to finish projects and sell them, which she said is how the firm returns investor capital and achieves its best returns, since selling a half-completed project is largely impractical. She described the firm as highly compliance-driven and summarized its philosophy as "boring is beautiful."
Knox has kept to its core South-East Queensland market since its founding. Woodhead expects the broader industry to adopt similar conservatism given ASIC's focus on private credit. She framed the central lending test as whether a manager would lend its own money or its parents' money.
Knox Funds, formerly GPS, is a Brisbane-based private credit investment firm that has operated for 30 years. Executive director for lending Marnie Woodhead, who with colleague Shelby Clark won The Urban Developer's 2026 Urban Leader Future Leader Award for Building and Consultancy, described the firm's approach in an interview on the Blueprint podcast.
Woodhead said the influx of new institutional-scale money into private credit has created pressure. In her account, some lenders write deals simply because capital sitting unused costs the business, which can lead to riskier lending. When this occurs, private credit lenders are sometimes forced to take on projects themselves. Woodhead said this is not new and happens regularly in the industry.
Knox's stated response is to finish projects and sell them, which she said is how the firm returns investor capital and achieves its best returns, since selling a half-completed project is largely impractical. She described the firm as highly compliance-driven and summarized its philosophy as "boring is beautiful."
Knox has kept to its core South-East Queensland market since its founding. Woodhead expects the broader industry to adopt similar conservatism given ASIC's focus on private credit. She framed the central lending test as whether a manager would lend its own money or its parents' money.
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