The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Sept. 28, edition that Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System has formed a partnership with the asset management arm of Goldman Sachs Group to invest in private loans in Asian and Pacific markets. The Globe's James Bradshaw writes that Goldman Sachs Asset Management will run a separately managed account where it will invest with OMERS. Neither the size of the fund nor OMERS's contribution were disclosed. Institutional investors see private debt as an area of huge opportunity in the coming years. Most private loans are floating rate, meaning the returns rise in step with interest rates. Demand for the loans has exploded as some banks, particularly in the United States, have tempered their appetite for lending to mid-market companies, constrained by tougher market conditions. Investors with money to employ in private credit are also increasingly partnering with banks, which have broad relationships and distribution networks, to roll out private credit funds. OMERS's partnership with Goldman Sachs allows it to tap the bank's Asian private credit group, which is a subset of a broader direct lending group that manages more than $100-billion (U.S.).