Private Debt Intelligence – 1/8/2018

Private Debt Fundraising in 2017 by Geographic Focus

North America saw the highest levels of private debt activity in 2017, with 75 funds focused on the region raising a total of $67bn. This amounted to over half (55%) of private debt funds closed, and the region made up 63% of capital raised. Although this is roughly the same amount of capital raised by the region in 2016 ($68bn), 2017 saw a decrease from the 97 funds closed in 2016. Additionally, 2017 marks a third consecutive year in which the region raised over $55bn in capital, demonstrating consistently high fundraising levels for the regions.

Europe saw the second highest level of activity, and 40 Europe-focused vehicles raised $33bn in capital. This marked a notable increase in capital raised from the previous year, which saw 48 vehicles raised $33bn. In fact, the region was just shy of reaching its previous record of $34bn which was raised by 43 funds in 2015. Despite experiencing a four-year low in the number of fund closures for the region, since 2011, Europe-focused private debt has seen steadily increasing levels of fundraising activity.

In 2017, Asia-focused funds secured $5.9bn with 13 fund closures. This is an uptick in activity from 2016, when 8 funds raised $2.0bn. However, 2017 fundraising levels did not reach the record levels seen in 2012 when 17 funds raised $8.8bn. Unlike North America- and Europe-focused funds which have seen consistent growth in fundraising levels, Asia-focused vehicles have experienced more volatility in private debt fundraising levels.