Point72 Asset Management has hired Blackstone senior managing director Todd Hirsch as head of private capital.

Hirsch will report directly to Point72 founder and chief executive Steve Cohen and is tasked with launching the firm’s first dedicated private credit strategy, according to an internal memo from Cohen circulated Tuesday morning.

Hirsch is leaving Blackstone after almost 13 years with the firm, most recently as co-president of Blackstone Private Equity Strategies and senior managing director in the Tactical Opportunities Group. Before joining Blackstone in 2013, Hirsch served as head of credit structuring at Deutsche Bank, before which he spent six years with Littlejohn & Co.

Cohen believes the private credit opportunity still has legs despite the rush of new entrants in recent years.

“Private credit is now a rapidly growing $3 trillion market, and the demand continues to exceed supply as corporate lending, specialty finance, and asset-based finance shifts from banks and public markets towards private markets,” noted Cohen in the memo.

According to an unnamed source cited by Reuters, the initiative will be rolled out as an additional strategy within Point72’s multi-strategy hedge fund rather than as a standalone vehicle. The firm has not yet decided whether it will raise a future standalone private credit fund or separate the strategy into a standalone business.

The initial plan is structured differently than the firm’s existing private markets capabilities in venture and growth equity, which are segmented into the Point72 Private Investments unit.

The firm also raised $600 million in 2021 for its first dedicated buyout private equity fund, Point72 Hyperscale, which launched with a focus on post-close value creation through applied AI. The fund acquired car wash business Tsunami in 2022 but cut most of its investment professional headcount in 2023 and is no longer listed on the firm’s website.