Europe’s private markets step into the gap Dealflow was strong in the first half as the refinancing trend gathered pace. Despite unprecedented macroeconomic uncertainty, private credit funds in Europe enjoyed the busiest Q2 on record this year as they executed 216 deals, compared with 154 in the same period of 2021…. Subscribe to Read MoreAlready

The UK: room for optimism but concern growing While dealflow remains strong, lenders are cautious as we head towards the end of the year. Figures from Deloitte’s Alternative Lender Deal Tracker show the UK debt market is still the most active private lending space in Europe, accounting for 111 out of the 395 deals on…

Europe ‘resilient in times of volatility’ The region is facing an array of headwinds but dealflow held up strongly in the first half of the year. When you consider all the macroeconomic challenges facing Europe, the fact that the private debt market posted double-digit deal growth in the second quarter of this year is a…

Why it’s time to revisit documentation Lenders have had a tough time at the negotiating table in a borrower-friendly market, but things may be changing. With economic clouds gathering, there is a sense that now is as good a time as any for investors/lenders to start flexing their muscles again in deal negotiations. Indeed, some…

Ups and downs in the US Some of the key talking points from our recent roundtable Amid rising interest rates and an inflationary environment, US private debt professionals are able to look on the bright side. Participants in a roundtable, forming part of our recent US Report, pointed out that rising rates translate to an…

Fundraising caution, but no collapse The numbers are holding up reasonably well, but getting LPs to part with capital is becoming a tougher task in many cases. The sense of a market feeling its way through a new set of economic realities is apparent in Private Debt Investor’s fundraising figures for the first half of…

Fundraising hits a new low Raising capital in the first half of this year was even tougher than at the height of the pandemic, but fund sizes are at all-time highs. First-half fundraising among private debt funds in 2022 is the lowest it has been in our sample at $91.9 billion, even slightly lower than…

Pushing aside senior debt When is senior debt really senior debt? A new report into so-called ‘priming’ brings this into question. Last year saw senior debt shoot up in popularity, accounting for a record 45 percent of total private debt fundraising (see chart). But is senior debt really senior? It may sound like an odd…

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…

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…