TheLeadLeft

Debtwire Middle-Market – 9/1/2025

Source: VanEck BDC Income ETF, BofA Merrill Lynch US High Yield Effective Yield The blue line in the chart is the current dividend yield of the *VanEck BDC Income ETF (currently at 11.1% as of 28 August) that tracks the overall performance of publicly traded business development companies (BDCs, are lenders to privately held middle-market businesses…

Covenant Trends - 9/1/2025

Percentage of Loans with F&C Tranche Growers (Past performance is no guarantee of future results.) Contact: Steven Miller smiller@covenantreview.com

Leveraged Loan Insight & Analysis - 9/1/2025

BDC AUM hits a new record, topping US$500bn The upward growth trajectory of BDCs shows no sign of slowing, with assets under management (AUM) climbing to a record US$503bn in 2Q25, representing a US$28bn increase from the prior quarter and a whopping US$128bn gain in the last twelve months…. Subscribe to Read MoreAlready a member?

PDI Picks – 9/1/2025

Unrealised potential Investors are struggling to get as much invested in private credit as they would like, although there has been a surge in allocations from sovereign wealth funds. With three quarters of institutions under-allocated to private credit – according to Private Debt Investor’s H1 2025 Investor Report – there is a huge potential pool…

Back to School (Part One)

Getting our heads back into markets, we reflect this week on the shape of public equities and fixed income. The S&P 500 has gained about 10% year-to-date, less than half of the 20% return for the comparable period in 2024. Similar figures for the DJIA are 7% and 10.5%, respectively.  Ten-year Treasurys bottomed out a…

The Force Awakens – Churchill 2Q Private Equity Survey (Part Two)

In response to our Reflections on Wimbledon two weeks ago, a long-time Lead Left reader informed us that the famed tournament is expanding. While we had opined “no one is building new grass courts,” he learned that the All-England Club has purchased an adjacent 100-acre golf course. “Subject to zoning approvals,” he wrote, “plans include […]