February 2016 Issue

As so often in finance, timing is the main question for private lenders seeking to exploit a ripening Spain.

What does the closure of a large number of once high-flying hedge funds say about the benefits of liquidity matching and the longevity of private debt funds?

Investors went full throttle for private debt in 2015. PDI surveys how and where that money was put to work.

Financial sponsors are turning on to Europe’s direct lenders on the back of hard-nosed financial considerations and softer relationship pulls.

Ares Management’s fully underwritten €300m debt package backing the leveraged buyout of travel shopping company Fintrax was a milestone for direct lending in Europe.

Private debt may still be ‘a cottage industry’ in Asia, but PDI’s second conference in the region heard of opportunities that compare well with the West.

Reed Smith partner and fund finance specialist Leon Stephenson notes the tendency of private credit funds to register in Luxembourg and traces the impact of this on debt fund credit facilities.

Hot on the heels of its sale to CPPIB, Antares is reviving a pre-sale lending partnership. The firm's senior managing director shares the details on the firm’s joint venture with Lone Star.

Market shifts require an experienced hand on the tiller when seeking the best of US mid-market debt in 2016, write NXT Capital’s John Finnerty and Neil Rudd.

Twin Brook Capital Partners’ managing partners, Trevor Clark and Chris Williams, talk about how they are building the business and the US mid-market leveraged lending environment in 2016.

Market evolution means investors must reassess what they’re getting into with the second generation of direct lenders.

Direct lending has been slow to take off in Asia but funds are seeing opportunities as banks feel pressure to cut back on risky assets.

Andrew Konopelski, partner and head of credit strategies at EQT, and portfolio managers Paul Johnson and Ralph Betz talk about the challenges of launching a direct lending business.

Some of the biggest animals in the financial world, sovereign wealth funds are beginning to make their presence felt in direct lending. But how these mega asset managers are putting money to work?

Alcentra’s European direct lending team, a long-lived market leader, emphasises bespoke service for its investors and borrowers alike.

The new generation of debt providers are looking to their infrastructure and finding that Cortland provides the range of services and flexibility they need.

Randy Schwimmer, head of origination & capital markets for Churchill Asset Management and founder and publisher of The Lead Left, examines one of the more popular one-stop credit solutions among middle market borrowers and lenders – unitranche.