Recently promoted to Portfolio Manager, Lucie Bielczykova has trailblazed her own path within the private debt market. Whether its leading on deals and advancing responsible investment initiatives, Lucie is helping pave the way for other women seeking a career in the private debt industry.

In February 2021, Lucie joined Revolution in the then newly created role of Associate Portfolio Manager. Lucie joined from JANA, a leading asset consultant, where she was focused on fixed income research, portfolio construction and investment strategy advice for a range of Australian and New Zealand institutional clients. At Revolution Asset Management, Lucie is primarily focused on corporate leveraged buyout loans (LBO), including due diligence, execution and ongoing monitoring of existing transactions. In the short time she has been part of the portfolio management team, Lucie has been involved in the due diligence for new leveraged buyout opportunities – financing about a dozen of transactions in the Australian and New Zealand market including KKR’s buyout of wealth platform Colonial First State from CBA, EQT’s investment in the largest integrated cancer care provider ICON Group, debt refinancing of the iconic Australian Arnott’s Biscuits, employment services leader Advanced Personnel Management (APM) or New Zealand e-commerce platform Trade Me, amongst others, as well as overseeing the existing portfolio of assets and contributing to the broader strategy of the firm.

“The M&A market has seen record levels of activity over 2021 and into 2022, which has provided strong LBO deal flow and allowed rapid capital deployment into high quality assets. Revolution raised over A$1bn in new funds in the last 18 months, growing the firm’s assets under management close to A$2bn.”

Lucie also manages the ESG agenda within the firm and acts as the internal advocate, living and breathing best practice to ultimately strengthen the investment process and the outcomes for clients. Lucie has led the implementation of several ESG initiatives, including the introduction of an ESG rating framework for LBO deals, increased level of engagement with borrowers and worked on funding of the first sustainability linked loan (SLL) in Revolution’s portfolio, one of the first of its kind being syndicated in the Australian market.

Lucie is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder, a graduate of a selective Bloomberg New Voices media program and a regular contributor to industry content.