A private credit practitioner would have found no better place to spend this week than at the SuperReturn North America Virtual conference. Your correspondent was honored to chair day one, moderate two lender panels and participate in a third.

Our role also gave us a front row seat to hear GPs and LPs describe at length and in great detail how they were dealing with the effects of COVID-19 and its on-going impact on portfolios, new deal flow, and fundraising.

The astonishing thing was how consistent reactions were across multiple strategies and specialties. Everyone saw initial deal flow come to a stand-still in March and April. They witnessed a broad response by borrowers and their owners to quickly inject liquidity and cut operating costs. And they were surprised when valuations (and general performance relative to covenants) remained in a range not far from par.