Fundraising caution, but no collapse The numbers are holding up reasonably well, but getting LPs to part with capital is becoming a tougher task in many cases. The sense of a market feeling its way through a new set of economic realities is apparent in Private Debt Investor’s fundraising figures for the first half of…

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…

Pushing aside senior debt When is senior debt really senior debt? A new report into so-called ‘priming’ brings this into question. Last year saw senior debt shoot up in popularity, accounting for a record 45 percent of total private debt fundraising (see chart). But is senior debt really senior? It may sound like an odd…

Positive thoughts amid volatility Recession may be looming but, in the private debt market, confidence remains high. The worst is yet to come. That’s the not entirely reassuring message from an LCD survey, which found that, when polled last month, 56 percent of respondents said peak market volatility still lies ahead. This represented a sharp…

Fear recedes over fund facilities Initial wariness over subscription finance has given way to acceptance – at least when it comes to brand-name GPs. “Leverage is a sensitive topic for LPs,” says Carolina Espinal, managing director at HarbourVest Partners. But while skepticism was rife in the early days of the subscription finance market, when limited…

A fast-changing asset class Continuing our reflections on how different dynamics are being seen across private markets. In last week’s edition of Lead Left, we took at look a some of the key themes emerging from our Private Funds Leaders’ Survey 2022, which we published in conjunction with MUFG Investor Services. This week, in our…

On the minds of limited partners Our upcoming Fund Leaders’ Survey provides a glimpse into what investors are thinking about the key issues of the day. So what are limited partners really thinking? Multiple answers to that question may be found in the upcoming July/August issue of Private Debt Investor, where we devote a section…

Tough talk on DE&I LPs are now asking questions of their managers, who, in turn, are waking up to the impact of diversity on performance. Private debt is still at the beginning of its DE&I journey. According to Diversity Review in Corporate Credit, a 2020 paper by specialist credit recruitment company Waterman Stern, just 14…

Business services: reliability amid volatility ‘Safe and steady’ is a tag that might be readily applied to the sector, and that’s just fine as far as investors are concerned. Alongside technology and healthcare, business services has emerged as a go-to sector for credit funders attracted by its reliable cashflows and sticky customer relationships. But unlike…

Claiming a bigger slice for alternatives A new study suggests its time for portfolio allocators to make some changes in the face of economic headwinds. A recent piece of analysis from KKR suggests that the classic 60/40 stocks/bonds portfolio construction model may have had its day in the face of a challenging new environment. The…