Unitranche minimum spread threshold shifts up One of the main themes of the loan market in 2Q22 was the disconnect between the broadly syndicated loan market and the direct lending market. Increased volatility and recession fears hit the institutional loan market and investors pushed back, resulting in much higher pricing. In the direct lending market,…
The relentless growth of private debt mega funds Private debt funds continue to grow larger. The average size of funds has ballooned to $1.57bn in 2022 year to date, 66% higher than 2021 and more than double that of 2020. This is also considerably more than the average fund size of $762mn of private equity…
Positive thoughts amid volatility Recession may be looming but, in the private debt market, confidence remains high. The worst is yet to come. That’s the not entirely reassuring message from an LCD survey, which found that, when polled last month, 56 percent of respondents said peak market volatility still lies ahead. This represented a sharp…
Second quarter numbers Download PitchBook’s Report here. PitchBook’s latest US PE Breakdown is now live and available for free. Q2 2022 was another decline, with $234 billion invested across 2,176 transactions. The dollar figure is 21% lower than the first quarter and 38% lower than Q4 2021. On paper, 2022 is actually off to a healthy…
Syndicated middle market loan volume climbs in 2Q22 but lags year-ago period Syndicated middle market issuance picked up in 2Q22 despite increased market volatility in May and June. Middle market lending climbed to US$48bn in 2Q22 from US$33bn in 1Q22 but was below the US$58bn posted in the same quarter last year. On a year-to-date…
Private debt dry powder at record levels Private debt dry powder has climbed to record highs in recent years. Investors committed capital during the pandemic as a rush of opportunities in the distressed debt space was expected. Indeed, 2021 saw the highest annual aggregate capital raised in private debt on record, at $214bn…. Subscribe to
Fear recedes over fund facilities Initial wariness over subscription finance has given way to acceptance – at least when it comes to brand-name GPs. “Leverage is a sensitive topic for LPs,” says Carolina Espinal, managing director at HarbourVest Partners. But while skepticism was rife in the early days of the subscription finance market, when limited…
The spike in growth funds Download PitchBook’s Report here. One of the many consequences of COVID was a shift in strategies among investors. The chart above is from PitchBook’s Quantitative Perspectives: US PE Enters a New Regime. It shows a relative spike in growth funds starting in mid-2021, relative to all fundraising done that year. The…
1H22 Leveraged volume down 31%; HY bonds off 75%, institutional loans down 61% The US leveraged market dramatically slowed in 2Q22, completing just over US$292bn of loan and high yield bond volume to bring totals for the first half of the year to less than US$480bn, down 31% year over year. The lack of macro…
Distressed debt mega funds rising again Fundraising in distressed debt, a major private debt strategy, has been relatively volatile over the past decade. Nevertheless, aggregate capital raised in 2021 rose to $31.7bn, compared with $14.8bn in 2011. The peak of 2020, in which fundraising hit $66.2bn, was boosted by the Oaktree Opportunities Fund XI closing…