PPM America, Inc. (PPM) today announced the addition of a seasoned emerging market (EM) debt team from Western Asset Management. The team includes Mark Hughes, senior managing director, portfolio manager and co-head of EM debt, Kevin Ritter, senior managing director, portfolio manager and co-head of EM debt, Matthew Graves, managing director and portfolio manager/analyst and Kevin Zhang, vice president and analyst.

The team averages 22 years of investment experience and have worked together for nearly a decade with portfolio managers having worked together since 2009. "We are excited to expand our capabilities in emerging market debt," said Jeff Seaver, PPM's Head of Global Distribution. "Emerging market debt is a compelling extension of our robust fixed income capabilities and we are proud to attract top-tier talent who share our commitment to deliver outstanding results for our clients."

Marty Boulanger, current PPM managing director and credit analyst covering sovereign debt with a focus on emerging markets, will join the team. Boulanger has 14 years of investment experience and joined PPM in 2018. The team will report to Ogechi Nwachukwu, Deputy Chief Investment Officer, and will primarily be based in Los Angeles, California.

"We are thrilled to join PPM, an organization that values a team-based culture and shares our focus on fundamental, bottom-up credit-intensive research," said Hughes. "As a portfolio manager, I look forward to helping drive growth at PPM and creating value for clients," added Ritter.

This strategic investment in talent is consistent with Jackson Financial Inc.'s (JFI) commitment to growing PPM's investment capabilities and assets under management. PPM is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of JFI, a publicly traded company.

About PPM America

Our mission is to be seen by clients and their advisors as a consistently reliable partner to help them achieve their long-term value goals.

PPM is a US-based institutional asset manager with $76.66 billion in assets under management as of 30 September 2024.¹ Established in Chicago in 1990, PPM exists to consistently support institutional clients in achieving their long-term value goals. We offer our Midwestern mentality of hard work, straight talk, full transparency and humility. Our success is supported by a team-based culture that encourages debate, collaboration and consistency. At the center of our belief is the fact that our best ideas have and can come from any team member anywhere in our firm. We believe the success of our investment culture is best demonstrated by the strong retention of our clients and investment professionals. For more information, visit www.ppmamerica.com.

About Jackson

Jackson^®2 (NYSE:JXN) is committed to helping clarify the complexity of retirement planning – for financial professionals and their clients. Through our range of annuity products, financial know-how, history of award-winning service³ and streamlined experiences, we strive to reduce the confusion that complicates retirement planning. We take a balanced, long-term approach to responsibly serving all our stakeholders, including customers, shareholders, distribution partners, employees, regulators and community partners. We believe by providing clarity for all today, we can help better drive outcomes for tomorrow. For more information, visit www.jackson.com.

¹ AUM includes committed but unfunded capital for PPM's private equity and commercial real estate businesses. AUM includes both securities issued by PPM CLO vehicles held by PPM separately managed account clients and the underlying collateral assets of the CLO vehicles managed by PPM.

² Jackson^® is the marketing name for Jackson Financial Inc., Jackson National Life Insurance Company^® (Home Office: Lansing, Michigan) and Jackson National Life Insurance Company of New York^® (Home Office: Purchase, New York).

³ SQM (Service Quality Measurement Group) Call Center Awards Program for 2004 and 2006-2023. (Criteria used for Call Center World Class FCR Certification is 80% or higher of customers getting their contact resolved on the first call to the call center (FCR) for 3 consecutive months or more.)

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For all media inquiries, please contact:

Julie Bruzek, Senior Managing Director

Marketing & Communications

P: 312-843-5969

E: media@ppmamerica.com

www.ppmamerica.com

PPM America Hires Seasoned Emerging Market Debt Team