We mentioned last week Apollo’s $1.8 billion financing for New Media Investment Group’s acquisition of Gannett & Co. It seemed like one of the largest non-bank buy-out deals ever. A banker friend of The Lead Left agreed:

“You remember Ares’ Qlik deal in 2016.” she said. “That was a shock to the market when it happened. While there have been a number of larger buyouts led by the non-banks, the $1 billion-plus transactions have been fewer than some expected.”

Can you point to others? “Earlier this year there was a UK deal for the Daisy Group, also led by Ares,” she told us. “That was £1 billion, buying out a minority partner.” Daisy Group is in the telecom services space.

Refinitiv’s Leela Parker nicely summarized the issue in a note last week [link]:

“Direct lenders with deep pockets and increasing scale are stepping up to provide billion dollar-plus commitments to fund large sized mergers and acquisitions,”