# Ellington Credit Co

Ellington Credit Co is an Asset Manager based in Old Greenwich, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Asset Manager
- **Headquarters:** Old Greenwich, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Old Greenwich, CT, United States
- **Founded:** 2012
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** ellingtoncredit.com

## Regulatory record

- **CRD number:** 168311
- **SEC file number:** 801-78637
- **Registration status:** Registered
- **Reports private funds:** No
- **IAPD record:** https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/168311

## About

Ellington Credit Co is an SEC-registered investment adviser in Old Greenwich, CT, registered since 2013. The firm manages approximately $415 million in regulatory assets. It has 164 employees and 68 investment advisers.

## Sectors

- Private Credit
- Real Estate
- Hedge Funds

## People

- Laurence Penn — Chief Executive Officer & President
- Michael Vranos — Co-Chief Investment Officer

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at Ellington Credit Co?

Investment decisions at Ellington Credit Co are executed by Ellington Management Group under the leadership of CEO Laurence Penn and Co-Chief Investment Officer Michael Vranos. The firm is externally managed, meaning Ellington Management Group's credit team — with its expertise in mortgage-backed securities, structured products, and leveraged finance — originates, underwrites, and manages the portfolio. The management agreement aligns incentives through a fee structure tied to the vehicle's market capitalization.

### What was the significance of the 2024 name change and strategic repositioning?

In 2024, the firm changed its name from Ellington Residential Mortgage REIT to Ellington Credit Co to reflect a fundamental shift in its investment mandate. The repositioning moved the vehicle away from agency residential MBS — which carried significant interest-rate and convexity risk — toward floating-rate corporate credit assets including CLOs, broadly syndicated loans, and credit risk transfer securities. The pivot aimed to stabilize income, reduce NAV volatility, and close the persistent trading discount to book value that affected the prior REIT structure.

### Does Ellington Credit Co participate in direct lending or only invest in CLO tranches?

Ellington Credit Co invests primarily in CLO mezzanine and equity tranches, rather than originating direct loans to corporate borrowers. It also holds corporate loans directly in some instances and credit risk transfer securities that transfer mortgage credit risk from government-sponsored enterprises. The firm does not operate as a direct lender like a business development company (BDC) — it gains corporate credit exposure through secondary-market structured credit instruments.

### How does Ellington Credit Co's external management affect governance?

As an externally managed vehicle, day-to-day portfolio decisions are made by Ellington Management Group rather than an internal employee team. The management agreement includes a base management fee and an incentive fee, both calculated off the vehicle's market capitalization. This structure creates alignment around total shareholder return but also concentrates decision authority in the external manager's hands, a governance feature that differentiates it from internally managed closed-end funds.

### Which credit sectors does Ellington Credit Co explicitly avoid?

The firm has explicitly moved away from agency residential mortgage-backed securities, which dominated its prior REIT mandate. It avoids long-duration, fixed-rate assets with high convexity risk. In the corporate credit space, the firm's public disclosures do not indicate a focus on distressed or non-performing loan acquisitions — its portfolio emphasizes current-pay, floating-rate CLO tranches and performing corporate loans rather than special-situations or distressed-for-control credit strategies.

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

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