Distress on the comeback trail In an increasingly turbulent and inflationary world, could an ‘old-fashioned’ wave of distressed debt be around the corner? The covid pandemic, inflation that now looks more long term than transitory, the promise of hikes in base rates, supply chain pressures, the conflict in Ukraine. The list may go on, though…
1Q22 US Syndicated loan volume down over 36% y-o-y US lenders booked less than US$455bn of loan volume via retail syndication in 1Q22, a 36% decline year over year and a 37% drop quarter over quarter. The results marked the lowest quarterly totals since 4Q20 and the weakest 1Q results in three years. Uncertainty in…
The middle market is buying more startups Download PitchBook’s Report here. Tucked away in PitchBook’s 2021 Annual Middle Market Report is an interesting trend: more middle-market transactions involve venture-backed startups. Last year, 189 middle market deals were struck for startups, up from 36 a decade ago. The 189 deals were worth a collective $27.6 billion, another…
The durability of dealflow in a crisis Private debt deals may take a temporary pause when confronted with volatility, but they soon bounce back. Private debt dealflow typically picks up strongly following market shocks. This was one of the key findings as Deloitte took a look back over ten years of its Alternative Lender Deal…
Tighter lending policies in Australia spur private debt growth Stricter bank regulations and tighter lending conditions in Australia in recent years gave rise to opportunities in private debt, and the asset class witnessed its fastest growth so far, with AUM growing 144% from December 2020’s $0.6bn to $1.4bn in 2021. Mezzanine debt continued to account…
Middle market multiples eased in 2021 Download PitchBook’s Report here. Middle market buyout multiples are returning to normalcy, according to PitchBook’s 2021 Annual Middle Market Report. The rolling three-year median settled at 12.5x in 2021, not much higher than the 12.3x median in 2019. The anomaly was 2020, which shot up to 14.0x. Most of that…
BDC technology lending has grown rapidly Strong portfolio company performance has underpinned the positive environment for BDCs in recent quarters, with Ebitda and revenues moving significantly higher over the last two years. At the sector level, technology has outperformed. Against that backdrop, BDC managers shifted their allocations toward technology credits…. Subscribe to Read MoreAlready a
Germany defies the doubters Once seen as a private debt laggard, Germany is now at the forefront of the asset class’s deal boom. While the onset of the covid-19 pandemic saw private debt deal-doing take a rollercoaster ride through some of its lowest and highest points yet, Germany has consistently gained ground on its major…
Private debt investors’ rising concerns over interest rates The US Federal Reserve approved a 0.25 percentage point interest rate hike on March 16. Private debt investors are protected from the negative consequences of rising interest rates by floating rate agreements. However, rising rates also increase default risk which can fundamentally damage portfolio performance…. Subscribe to
How big of a unitranche could we see this year? The “mega-unitranche” reached new scale in 2021, as private lenders’ capacity to finance large transactions continued to increase. Unitranche loan issuance exploded to US$151bn in 2021, from US$41.5bn the prior year. This included US$86bn of large corporate unitranches, up from US$18bn the prior year…. Subscribe