Featuring Charts
Chart of the Week: Up the Middle
Total middle market loan volume for 2024 at $51.3 billion was the highest in eight years. Source: Fitch Ratings, Lev Fin Insights.
Read MoreChart of the Week: Wide Dispersion
BSL defaults at 3Q 2024 were more than six times those in private credit. Source: Proskauer (Private Credit), Fitch Ratings (BSL), as of September 30, 2024.
Read MoreChart of the Week: Privates First Class
Direct lending’s share of buyout financings now dwarfs that of the bank market. Source: LSEG LPC
Read MoreChart of the Week: Reversal of Fortune
Three quarters of M&A activity in 2024 approached full-year volume for 2023. Source: PitchBook
Read MoreChart of the Week: Labor on a Roll
December’s job adds topped expectations, suggesting slower Fed rate cuts. Source: WSJ, The Daily Shot
Read MoreChart of the Week: Grade A Markets
Investment grade corporate bond spreads are near record lows. Source: Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) – St. Louis Fed, The Daily Shot
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Features
Private Debt Intelligence – 2/3/2025

Investors stick to less risky debt strategies Read more in ‘Private Debt Q4 2024: Preqin Quarterly Update’ Private debt fundraising was at a five-year low in 2024 despite continued investor satisfaction with the asset class’ performance, with 59% saying that investments had met expectations and a further 28% stating they had been exceeded…. Subscribe to
Bloomberg: Leveraged Lending Insights – 2/3/2025

Record Month of January Sets Pace for a Busy 2025 January’s $186b of US institutional leveraged loan issuance was up $45.7b for an increase of 32.6% from the same month a year ago, making it the busiest January on record since Bloomberg began tracking the data in 2013. It amounted to the second busiest month…
Middle Market & Private Credit – 2/3/2025

Fitch U.S. MM CLO Spotlight – December 2024 Click here to learn more. In the charts above, Fitch presents aggregate data for issuers in its Privately Monitored Ratings (PMR) portfolio. Fitch privately rates these issuers for asset managers…. Subscribe to Read MoreAlready a member? Log in here...
The Pulse of Private Equity – 2/3/2025

Carveouts/divestitures as a share of all US PE buyouts by quarter Download PitchBook’s Report here. Carveouts accounted for 11.8% of all US PE buyouts in Q4 2024, a sequential quarterly increase…. Subscribe to Read MoreAlready a member? Log in here...
Leveraged Loan Insight & Analysis – 2/3/2025

Daily Analytic: Unitranche spreads tighten sharply over the last year Unitranche pricing tightened significantly over the course of 2024, moving steadily lower in the first nine months of the year before edging higher in 4Q24…. Subscribe to Read MoreAlready a member? Log in here...
Beginning in July 2022 The Lead Left published a series of articles on credit market. This report consolidates those articles.
Cov-lite trends Inflation & rising interest rates – LIBOR to SOFR transition Mega-tranche uni trend ESG takes center stage Login to view interactive report and download PDF version. … Subscribe to Read MoreAlready a member? Log in here Related posts: 2H 2021 Midyear Outlook Report State of the Capital Markets – Fourth Quarter 2016 Review and
Beginning in September 2021 The Lead Left published a series of articles on supply chain. This report consolidates those articles.