Direct Lending Drives Dry Powder Growth The private debt industry has seen relatively small increases in dry powder (capital waiting to be deployed) in recent years. After spiking by 23% across 2015, annual rises in 2016 and 2017 were just 3% and 7% respectively, with a further 3% rise to the end of April 2018….

Private Debt Funds in Market: An Overview In Q1 2018, direct lending vehicles – a strategy that typically dominates private debt fundraising – accounted for roughly just 36% of funds closed and a similar proportion of aggregate capital raised. This proved to be a decline in proportions from 2017, when the strategy made up 47%…

Direct Lending Fundraising Drops in Q1 2018 The private debt industry saw record year in 2017 in which 156 funds raised an aggregate $115bn. Q1 2018 however, has seen a slowdown in fundraising levels – just nineteen private debt funds reached a final close, raising a combined $14bn. Direct lending in particular saw a decrease…

Private Debt: Slowdown in Q1 2018 The private debt industry had a banner year in 2017 in which 156 funds held a final close securing a record $115bn. This marked a significant increase from the previous record in 2015 when 178 funds raised a little over $100bn in capital. 2017 was also the only year…

Credit Strategies Start 2018 with Positive Performance Preqin finds that credit strategy hedge funds have maintained their streak of positive performance, having generated positive returns on a yearly basis since 2009, and seeing returns of 7.41% in 2017. The strategy has started 2018 with a bang, producing positive performance in the first two months of…

Private Debt Fund Managers Are Optimistic Despite a Challenging Market As the private debt industry has matured, issues that have historically affected other alternative classes – high valuation and increased competition for transactions – have become increasingly prominent concerns. Almost half (49%) of private debt managers cite valuations as a key challenge facing the industry…

UK-Based Private Debt Fundraising: An Overview The UK-based private debt fundraising market witnessed a record 2017, with 22 funds securing a total of $19bn in capital, exceeding the previous record of $11bn raised by 21 funds in 2015. 2017 also marked a sharp uptick from the previous year: in 2016, 19 UK-based private debt funds…

Investors Remain Satisfied with Private Debt In December 2017, Preqin surveyed a sample of the private debt investor community to gauge their perception of the asset class, the extent to which they felt that their private debt investments have lived up to expectations over the past year, as well as their intentions for their private…

Investors in Private Debt Private debt has maintained steady interest from investors due to its strong performance and high levels of capital distributed back to investors. There are currently over 3,100 institutional investors actively investing in private debt or considering entering the asset class. This represents an increase of 700 investors in the course of…

Asia-Based Investors Surge into Private Debt The private debt industry has seen a steady increase in the number of investors active in the asset class in recent years. As the asset class has become more prominent and more distinct from the wider private capital market, institutions have begun to take more active involvement and allocate…