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Loan defaults in 2023 are not predicted to match previous recessions, but a disproportionate amount will come from private equity-owned companies. Cov-lite structures should give them an upper hand in negotiations…
Corporate loan defaults are slowly ticking up and are expected to rise to around 5% in the US and Europe during 2023 – still far below the peak of the global financial crisis.
Nevertheless, as growth slows and interest rates have increased, a wave of debt restructuring among private equity-backed companies is expected to build. Over the past 12 months, a growing number of private equity funds have been
Fund financing – which includes subscription lines of credit and NAV-based loans – is set to grow even as capital markets slow. A measured approach is advised…
In a slower credit market, there is one form of debt financing that tends to accelerate among private equity funds.
Fund finance – which allows GPs to raise loans at fund rather than asset-level – has been around for years but spiked during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic when sponsors were unable to raise debt for their portfolio companies and unwilling to make capital calls on their LPs.
With the cost of
Large pension fund investors have increased their allocations to private credit in memory of how the asset class performed post-global financial crisis.
Last year, private credit assets under management exceeded $1 trillion for the first time. Over the next five years that figure is expected to more than double.
On an earnings call at the end of October, Blackstone’s COO Jon Gray described private credit as a “long-term mega trend” within alternatives, which has been experiencing mega-trend status itself for almost a decade. Gray has reason to be positive: Blackstone’s Q3 earnings showed private equity shedding 0.3% in value during
The carnage in the syndicated bank market looks set to continue and the near-term liquidity of direct lenders is being squeezed. Private equity sponsors are looking for other levers to pull on their buyout financing…
There is a problem in the bank market.
The leveraged buyouts, or LBOs, which have characterised private equity over the past decade have left banks on the hook for more than $50bn in financing commitments, which they underwrote in more stable times.
Loans that haven’t been pulled by sponsors or offloaded by banks at a steep discount are expected to be “puked into the market”
Software and services sector investor Hg has sold Transporeon, a cloud-based transportation management software platform, to Trimble in a transaction valuing the business at an enterprise value of €1.88 billion.
American Pacific Group (APG), a private equity firm focused on partnering with lower middle market companies across industries in North America, has closed its second fund, American Pacific Group Fund II at its hard cap of $700 million. The fund was oversubscribed.
The fund attracted commitments from institutional investors based in the United States and Europe, including endowments, foundations, a healthcare system, insurance companies, family offices, pension systems, and asset managers.
American Pacific Group was founded in 2019 by Fraser Preston, a former managing director at HIG Capital. The company seeks to partner with companies at an inflection point
Kester Capital, a UK lower mid-market private equity firm, is to sell its portfolio business, Vixio, a provider of global regulatory intelligence to the payments and gambling markets, to European private equity investor Perwyn.
The sale of Vixio will deliver a return on Kester’s investment of 4.8x and an IRR of over 60%. This represents Kester’s sixth consecutive exit over 3x and comes on the back of the sale of Avania earlier this year which delivered a return of over 8x.
The sale also marks Kester’s first exit from its current fund, Kester Capital II, which closed at its
Tikehau Capital, a global alternative asset manager, has teamed with management to acquire a 100% stake in Isotrol, a developer of proprietary software solutions for the renewable energy sector in Spain.
The investment is being made through the Tikehau Capital’s Energy Transition Strategy. With over €1.0 billion in assets under management, the growth equity strategy targets the development and international expansion of mid-sized companies focused on clean energy generation, low-carbon mobility and energy efficiency.
Founded in 1984, Isotrol has built solutions that enable real-time improvement of the productivity and efficiency of energy generation assets. As of today, Isotrol management systems
Alternative asset management firm EnTrust Global has appointed Sophia Mullen as president, a newly-created role at the company. Mullen will continue to head EnTrust Global’s $8 billion opportunistic co-investment strategy and remain on EnTrust Global’s Management Committee and Global Investment Committee.
As the firm’s President, Mullen will focus on expanding the company’s global presence, and pursuing other innovative opportunities for the firm’s increasingly diverse institutional investor base.
Mullen, who most recently served as Senior Managing Director of EnTrust Global, has played a key role in the growth of the company. In the four years she has led the co-investment
Global private equity firm Permira has appointed Andy Eckert as a senior adviser to its global technology team, focusing on healthcare technology investments. Eckert will also work with the firm’s healthcare team on broader opportunities in the sector.
Eckert has over 30 years of experience managing and growing healthcare companies. He currently serves on the board of directors of Becton, Dickinson and Company, a global medical technology leader, and was most recently CEO of Zelis, a payments technology and cost containment platform which aims to modernise the financial healthcare system. Eckert also previously served as chairman of the board of directors
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