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
A big year for the middle market Download PitchBook’s Report here. Like the broader PE landscape, the US middle market was well into record territory in 2021. According to PitchBook’s just-released 2021 Annual Middle Market Report, more than 4,000 deals were struck for the first time. It was also the first time deal flow eclipsed 3,000…
Why large-scale distress may be back in fashion For big distressed debt funds, identifying sufficient dealflow has been a challenge. But do such investors now have a ‘perfect storm’? With the world in a state of flux, it seems an appropriate time to revisit the distressed market and see whether there is a sense that…
Private debt firms behind the curve on D&I Just 11% of private debt fund managers (251 out of 2,225) have public diversity and inclusion (D&I) policies or initiatives in place, according to Preqin Pro. This puts them third amongst alternative asset classes, behind both infrastructure (21%) and natural resources (17%)…. Subscribe to Read MoreAlready a
Private debt overhang drops Download PitchBook’s Report here. The cumulative capital overhang for the private debt industry dropped for the first time in more than a decade, according to PitchBook’s Annual Global Private Debt Report. It’s another indication of how accelerant today’s PE market is, considering almost $1 trillion of private debt capital has been raised…