“If you liked private credit before, you’ll really like it now.” – Managing director of a private debt investment firm. As we wrap up our special series on the “new” private credit, let’s look at factors influencing both quantity and quality of deal flow next year. First, the economy. Recent employment numbers point to a…
Will investor worries about a recession’s impact on private credit come true? We asked this question at the end of last week’s installment in our special series on the “new” post-COVID private credit. With all the distractions related to the side-effects of the coronavirus on the economy and our daily lives, it’s a challenge to…
We mentioned last week our turn at the SuperReturn North America Virtual conference. There we heard participants weigh in on various aspects of the pandemic on private credit, including impact on terms, structures and portfolio performance. But what about new business? A lot depends on managers’ strategies. Over the past five years, institutional investors have…
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…
“October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.” Mark Twain’s famous dictum on investing came to mind as we watched recent choppiness in public markets. With the waning weeks of summer passing and an uncertain…
Over the past five months, we’ve dedicated this space to examining the impact of COVID-19 on the economy and the markets. We’ve also spent time interviewing top private equity and investment banking partners on the state of deal making in the U.S. What has gotten largely lost in other media reporting on the capital markets…
The question investors of all stripes face today is, what is the “new normal” for businesses? Unfortunately, as a recent Accenture study notes [link], “normal isn’t available to us anymore.” In the absence of normality, sponsors and lenders are adapting. “We historically focused on six sectors,” the partner of a top middle market private equity…
The challenges of COVID are making financing deals even trickier than normal. Top M&A bankers we have spoken with gave us their perspectives on what sellers and buyers should expect given all the uncertainty. “There are a lot of twists and turns today,” a mid-West managing director told us. “You may think the company you’re…
As we discussed last week in our special series on the new COVID-impacted M&A world, the volume of deal flow was off sharply at the onset of the crisis. But as deal makers adjusted to the new normal of business openings (and reversed openings) across the country, conversations are now back to deal processes. What…
This week we kick off a new series on COVID-impacted deal flow, with a look “upriver.” How has M&A activity been affected, and what should deal makers expect for the “new normal?” We spoke to select middle market investment banks about their experiences so far in this coronavirus season. The beginning of the crisis caught…