How it started
History
The Company was founded as a specialist lender in 1952 by Ray O’Neill with the steadfast belief that home ownership was the foundation of financial independence.
In 1999 it introduced Australia's first "Lite Doc" alternative verification loan for self-employed borrowers. In 2001 the firm was appointed by ASIC to assume operations of a failing national provider.
In 2014 it made its first entry into global debt capital markets via required minimum distributions (RMBS). That year Blackstone Inc. acquired an 80% equity stake in the firm. In 2022 Brookfield Asset Management acquired La Trobe Financial, and Chris Andrews was appointed chief executive officer (CEO).
In 2024 the firm launched a US private credit fund with Morgan Stanley as sub-adviser. In 2025 it listed a private credit fund on the ASX, trading under the code ASX:LF1.
In 2026 Brookfield Asset Management sold a minority stake to Axight, an Abu Dhabi–based private equity investment manager focusing on investing across the Asia-Pacific region. Axight was established by Lunate, a global investment firm with over US$115 billion in assets under management.
From Wikipedia’s article on La Trobe Financial, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2