Blackstone Private Credit Fund continues to grow Perpetual-life BDCs continue to pull in money, with these funds accounting for the majority of recent growth in the BDC space. In addition to enticing investors with attractive yields like all BDCs, perpetual-life BDCs continually offer new shares monthly and provide investors with quarterly liquidity through a share…
BDC loan valuations shift lower in recent filings The fair value of BDC debt investments declined in 2Q22, driven by credit spread widening across the broader markets as volatility spiked against a backdrop of inflationary pressures and recession fears. Looking at the cohort of 56 BDCs that have posted earnings as of August 10, the…
Midyear grading Download PitchBook’s Report here. Every December, PitchBook makes a slew of predictions about industry trends in the upcoming year. That’s been a tricky gambit since 2019. In successive years, the industry has navigated a global pandemic, a skyscraper of a recovery, and a slowdown driven by unavoidable macro trends. Last December, the prevailing mood…
Private debt fundraising in North America on track for record The number of private debt funds in North America has yet to reach pandemic or pre-pandemic levels, but the trend of mega funds continues. In 2022 year to date, 55 private debt funds closed in North America. Even if that number doubles in the next…
Fundraising hits a new low Raising capital in the first half of this year was even tougher than at the height of the pandemic, but fund sizes are at all-time highs. First-half fundraising among private debt funds in 2022 is the lowest it has been in our sample at $91.9 billion, even slightly lower than…
The healthcare sector led sponsored MM lending in 1H22 Overall sponsored middle market lending activity (comprised of both direct lending and syndicated volume) was robust again in 2Q22, climbing 42% to US$44bn. The healthcare, business services and technology sectors remained in the top 3 spots in the most recent quarter, cementing their lead in the…
Healthy deal flow for take-privates Download PitchBook’s Report here. 2022 is shaping up for a healthy year for take-privates, according to PitchBook’s latest US PE Breakdown. Almost $60 billion worth of transactions closed in H1, which is already past 2020 totals. And there have been relatively few of them, too. Just 18 so far this year,…
Growth of mega funds masks smaller fund activity In keeping with the growing trend of consolidation within the private debt industry, in Q2 2022 the largest funds continued to attract most of the aggregate capital targeted. Compared to the same time a year earlier (Q2 2021), the proportion of funds in market targeting aggregate capital…
Fewer first-time funds Download PitchBook’s Report here. Last year was a better year for first-time fundraisers, according to PitchBook’s latest US PE Breakdown. Rookie fundraising is slowing compared to last year, in part because LPs are prioritizing existing GP relationships, especially their bigger ones. Through June, 27 first-time funds have closed, worth a combined $5.2 billion….
Middle market unitranche leverage declines in 2Q22 Leverage on middle market unitranche loans tightened to 5.57x in 2Q22, its lowest level since 3Q20, as it continued to retreat from the record highs seen in 2021. From a pricing perspective, blended spreads were flat for middle market unitranches, averaging 600bp in the most recent quarter…. Subscribe