May 2014 Issue

Private Debt Investor spoke to Walid Cherif, a managing director at Gulf Capital and co-head of Gulf Credit Partners about debt investing in the MENA region.

Emerging markets offer high risks, but higher rewards for the canny private debt investor, writes Oliver Smiddy.

EMPEA’s Michael Casey and Jeff Schlapinski brought together some of the world’s leading emerging market debt specialists to discuss opportunities and challenges in an increasingly global marketplace.

From meagre beginnings Antoine Flamarion and Mathieu Chabran have turned Tikehau Group into a European asset manager of considerable scale. Oliver Smiddy met the pair to discuss the importance of private debt within the context of their broader alternatives platform.

Private Debt Investor spoke with Franklin Square Capital Partners co-founder Michael Forman in the lead-up to the FS Investment Corporation’s public market debut last month.

Integrated Private Debt has come a long way from its origins sourcing and managing loan assets for companies in Canada’s insurance and trust industry. The firm recently closed its fourth investment fund in the last ten years.

As an advanced economy with close ties to the US, Canada’s private debt market appears poised for growth. But just because the fundamentals are there doesn’t mean borrowers will shed their conservative tendencies, Sam Sutton writes.

Cheap, abundant debt gave the “Golden Age of buyouts” its sheen, but the crisis recalibrated the market. Recent deals however suggest leverage is an increasingly important element of large LBOs, writes Anna Devine.

Idinvest has launched two private debt funds in recent months designed to provide investors with an investment strategy to meet their return expectations. Oliver Smiddy met with firm founder Christophe Bavière to talk about the twin fundraisings.

One month after a new bond platform debuted in the UK, another peer-to-peer lender has been busily matching investors with borrowers. Anna Devine reports.

Lone Star’s acquisition of Europe’s largest commercial property earlier this year brought to an end a saga that began in late 2008 with Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, writes Oliver Smiddy. The asset has also had a major impact on the French legal system.

Ares Management is the latest asset manager to opt for an IPO. Sam Sutton argues that it’s better placed than previous, LBO-focused, firms to thrive as a public entity.

Private debt funds are increasingly influential in the world’s third largest economy, thanks to a buoyant real estate market, appetite for mezzanine and the need for rescue financing, as our Asian correspondent reports.

CalPERS faces a difficult challenge maintaining its private equity/private debt allocation in an exit-friendly environment, writes Sam Sutton.