Private debt investors’ rising concerns over interest rates The US Federal Reserve approved a 0.25 percentage point interest rate hike on March 16. Private debt investors are protected from the negative consequences of rising interest rates by floating rate agreements. However, rising rates also increase default risk which can fundamentally damage portfolio performance…. Subscribe to
How big of a unitranche could we see this year? The “mega-unitranche” reached new scale in 2021, as private lenders’ capacity to finance large transactions continued to increase. Unitranche loan issuance exploded to US$151bn in 2021, from US$41.5bn the prior year. This included US$86bn of large corporate unitranches, up from US$18bn the prior year…. Subscribe
A big year for the middle market Download PitchBook’s Report here. Like the broader PE landscape, the US middle market was well into record territory in 2021. According to PitchBook’s just-released 2021 Annual Middle Market Report, more than 4,000 deals were struck for the first time. It was also the first time deal flow eclipsed 3,000…
Why large-scale distress may be back in fashion For big distressed debt funds, identifying sufficient dealflow has been a challenge. But do such investors now have a ‘perfect storm’? With the world in a state of flux, it seems an appropriate time to revisit the distressed market and see whether there is a sense that…
Private debt firms behind the curve on D&I Just 11% of private debt fund managers (251 out of 2,225) have public diversity and inclusion (D&I) policies or initiatives in place, according to Preqin Pro. This puts them third amongst alternative asset classes, behind both infrastructure (21%) and natural resources (17%)…. Subscribe to Read MoreAlready a
Private debt overhang drops Download PitchBook’s Report here. The cumulative capital overhang for the private debt industry dropped for the first time in more than a decade, according to PitchBook’s Annual Global Private Debt Report. It’s another indication of how accelerant today’s PE market is, considering almost $1 trillion of private debt capital has been raised…
US LBO first-lien leverage at all-time high Total leverage on US LBO deals continues to hover around the 7.1x mark in 1Q22, the same area its averaged over the last seven quarters. What is different this quarter is an increase in first-lien leverage which is averaging 5.9x so far, the highest level tracked all-time. So…
Private debt AUM growth will spur product innovation Preqin expects private debt to be the fastest growing alternative asset class over the next five years, with forecast compound annual growth rate of 17.4% from 2021 to 2026 outpacing infrastructure (16.7%), private equity (15.8%), and real estate (7.1%). This growth would be an acceleration from 15.27%…
Safety first is good news for senior debt Investors coming from fixed income, and with anxiety around inflation, see the senior end of the spectrum as their natural entry point into private debt. The covid-19 pandemic has seen senior debt fundraising take more market share, with PDI’s 2021 Fundraising Report recording that 45 percent of…
BDC loan valuations stabilize in most recent filing period The most recent data from BDC earnings season shows that debt valuations stabilized in 4Q21, as price appreciation finally eased off, following a huge rebound from the lows seen in 1Q20 when COVID first hit. Looking at the cohort of BDCs that have filed as of…