After spending years courting Australia’s biggest pension funds for mandates, global private credit managers are pouring resources into a new crop of investors in the country: wealthy individuals.

Ares Management Corp., Blue Owl Capital Inc. and Muzinich & Co. are among those touting private-credit investments to high-net-worth Australians, a market that’s worth north of $1 trillion, according to one estimate. They are pitching private credit as a defensive play against a potential stock swoon, arguing the asset class can offer high returns in a period of still elevated interest rates and allow investors to differentiate away from traditional 60/40 stock-and-bond portfolios.