Perpetual Investments is the latest fund manager to offer an ASX-listed credit fund aimed at investors looking for yield with a defensive flavour.The offer for Perpetual Credit Income Trust opens on Monday and is expected to close in April 18. Perpetual will cover the fund's establishment costs, so the full amount raised will be available for investment on day one.The fund will invest in a portfolio of 50 to 100 credit and fixed income assets, with a spread of credit quality, loan maturity, country and issuer. It will not hold any government or semi-government debt securities.When it lists, the fund will compete for the attention of investors with funds managed by Metrics Credit Partners, Gryphon Capital Investments and Neuberger Berman - all of them recent entrants in the listed credit fund market.Last week Metrics launched its second listed credit fund, a portfolio of sub-investment grade debt with a target return of 8 to 10 per cent.Perpetual has more than $7 billion in credit and fixed income. The group's head of credit Michael Korber will manage the portfolio.The fund will target an income return of the Reserve Bank cash rate plus 3.25 per cent, net of fees. The estimated management cost is 88 basis points.The fund can hold up to 70 per cent in unrated or sub-investment grade securities. It can hold up to 30 per cent in foreign currency securities.Typical investments will include corporate bonds, floating rate notes, securitised assets and corporate loans.Perpetual says its credit team uses a proprietary credit scoring process to assess the risk of individual exposures and the overall credit market.Exposure to corporate loans may be gained directly or through investment in the Perpetual Loan Fund. The Perpetual Loan Fund was established last June and has $38 million of assets. Perpetual has not included much information about the loan fund in the product disclosure statement.Perpetual estimates that the Australian non-government debt market is worth about $3 trillion. Corporate bonds represent about one-third of the total Australian debt market."For investors, this means the corporate bond market in Australia is increasing in scale, diversity and liquidity," Perpetual says.