North America PD Deal Value Rebounds in 2021 The private debt industry in North America is on track to beat last year’s number of deals and has already outpaced 2020 in aggregate deal value. So far in 2021, the region has seen 339 deals with an aggregate deal value of $105.5bn… Subscribe to Read MoreAlready
Europe is also heating up It’s not just the US seeing transaction activity hit the heights. The leveraged buyout market is helping to create a boom in Europe, too. In last week’s edition of Lead Left, we reflected in this column on the “white hot” US deals market. In Europe, it’s a similar story, with…
Unitranches continue to grow in size and scale The size and depth of the direct lending market has grown dramatically in recent years, with mega unitranches increasing in frequency. These larger deals have helped private lenders take market share from the broadly syndicated market and highlighted their growing scale. Back in 2019, there were 13…
Another frenetic quarter for the middle market Download PitchBook’s Report here. PitchBook’s latest US Middle Market Report was released today. The frenetic pace of dealmaking continued into the second quarter, reaching an estimated $142.8 billion. That would mark the second highest quarterly total on record, behind Q4 2020’s $156.8 billion. Sandwiched between those two was a…
Dry powder levels indicate healthy competition in PD Levels of dry powder in private debt have reached 35% across five main strategies (direct lending, distressed debt, mezzanine, special situations and venture debt) in Q2 2021, with funds sitting on $364bn. This indicates that, based on a three-year fundraising cycle, capital raised is in balance with…
Reinforcements needed for deals frontline Private debt transactions are plentiful, but are European fund managers biting off more than they can chew? In last week’s Lead Left, we reflected on our US Report, which accompanied the September 2021 issue of Private Debt Investor, in which Paul Hastings partner William Brady told us that the market…
Emerging manager performance Download PitchBook’s Report here. A new PitchBook analyst note, Beyond Fund I, dives into several emerging manager topics. A few surprises stood out. The chart above, for example, shows fairly static performance between a manager’s first fund and subsequent ones. Debut funds do, though, see the most performance variation compared to later funds,…
BDC asset valuations post gains in 2021 BDC’s have benefited from rising asset valuations in recent months, with both loan and equity holdings posting gains. During 2Q21 (the most recent quarter for which data is available), the weighted average mark on BDC debt holdings climbed to 97.71% from 97.18% in the prior quarter and is…
Mega funds dominate private debt fundraising Despite a slight decrease in the number of funds closed, direct lending remains the most popular private debt strategy, with a hefty $14.7bn more capital raised for the strategy in H1 2021 than in the first half last year. Across private debt the average amount invested on a per…
The US market is ‘white hot’ The world’s most mature private debt market is a hive of activity as it shakes off the effects of the health crisis. More than 12 months on from the pandemic-induced slump in sentiment, the US private debt market is in rude health – “white hot and hotter than it…