Kirk Falconer

Rising rates – reinforced this week by the Federal Reserve’s vow to continue battling inflation – are motivating LPs to explore asset classes that provide some measure of refuge. One of the beneficiaries appears to be private debt.

Antares’ Fund II is the latest of several new direct lending products to hit the market, all seemingly aimed at growing LP demand for private credit in a rising-rate environment.

'It is getting harder out there,' president and COO Jonathan Gray said in the firm’s second-quarter 2022 earnings call in reply to a question about fundraising trends.

Fortress Lending Fund III has so far collected nearly $1.3bn and is expected to wrap up later this year.

Sixth Street created the strategy in response to demand from borrowers and private equity sponsors to bring more capital into the “underserved” large-deal market, sources told Buyouts.

'We should be everywhere first,' Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone’s CEO, said at the Bernstein 38th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference.

Distress opportunities could open up in the months ahead as inflation, rate hikes and geopolitical disturbances – above all, the war in Ukraine – create more economic uncertainty.

Apollo’s and Ares’ vehicles are among a handful of special opportunities funds targeting an estimated combined $20bn to $25bn.

The firm's co-chief executive says barriers to entry in the private assets industry have gone up.

Second-ever risk alert rings alarms over accurate disclosures, advertising, books-and-records, due diligence and hedge clauses.