The Carlyle Group’s Post

🚨Wells Fargo sells $2 billion of private equity investments The investments were in certain funds managed by Norwest Equity Partners (NEP) and Norwest Mezzanine Partners (NMP). They were sold to a group of buyers that included private equity firm The Carlyle Group’s unit AlpInvest Partners, Atalaya Capital Management, Lexington Partners Partners and Pantheon. Lazard advised Wells Fargo on the deal. Wells Fargo CFO Mike Santomassimo stated: “With this transaction, we are continuing with our strategic efforts to focus on Wells Fargo's core businesses and customers". Lenders have been looking to improve efficiency and scale back less important bets, to better navigate the uncertainty as the Federal Reserve tries to engineer a soft landing for the U.S. economy.

Another potential signal of M&A activity in 2024, reported by the WSJ, this time from the debt-financing persective: "Nearly 90% of the over $350 billion of leveraged loans priced in 2024 have been opportunistic, for things like refinancing or repricing, data from LevFin Insights shows." "In March, average spreads on new loans from issuers rated single-B were roughly 1.5 percentage points lower than they were at the same time last year, according to LevFin Insights." "This is a sign that debt investors are hungry to buy and aren’t overly worried about credit risk, reflecting the same strong economic data that may keep interest rates elevated." "With more of their existing deals refinanced, private-equity firms might now be in a position to start to deploy more capital into new deals." https://lnkd.in/dU8AwTWQ

We’re pleased to share Churchill Asset Management has been named #2 Americas Lender of the Year and #3 Americas Junior Lender of the Year by Private Debt Investor. The PDI awards recognize top-achieving managers, institutional investors and advisers in the private debt industry. Despite a challenging market environment in 2023, Churchill invested over $11 billion across their integrated middle market private capital platform in partnership with private equity clients. #privatecredit #privateequity

Will we see a return to higher credit levels in leveraged buyouts in 2024? Leveraged buyouts (LBOs) refer to the acquisition of a company using borrowed funds, such as bonds or loans, to fund a purchase. According to Goldman Sachs chief credit strategist, we could see traditional LBO structure return because of the large amount of dry powder combined with more deals being financed with equity and cash. To learn more about next year’s prediction, check out this PitchBook article: https://lnkd.in/gkKf_tnm #PrivateEquity #LBO #PE #Business #Forecast #Buyouts https://lnkd.in/gSnNynyV

We lay out the case for why issuers should take advantage of strong technicals and robust investor demand to pursue a variety of opportunistic transactions including refinancings, repricings, and dividend deals. We also offer examples of transactions Jefferies has recently led that capitalized on these more favorable conditions. https://ow.ly/1cvN50Qu7BY

Today's ABL Advisor news features KeyBank, Blackstone, Wintrust Financial Corporation, Mountain Ridge Capital, Comvest Partners, Citi, Barnes & Thornburg LLP and more. Read the today's newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/gHFhF8nM #assetfinance #assetbasedlending #termloans #commercialfinance #corporatefinance #privatecredit #privatedebt #privateequity #alternativeinvestments #lending #bankloans #nonbanklender

An insight piece from yesterday on CFS Brands' $1B financing package with Blackstone: The syndicated-market-to-private-market narrative has become gospel in below-investment-grade capital markets, but an important development in that storyline has been the success with which direct lenders have refinanced out institutional names, as opposed to picking off LBOs, M&A or other new transactions. The CFS-Blackstone deal is just one more example of that trend. https://lnkd.in/eeqt6ihe #privatecredit #privatedebt #directlending #leveragedfinance #leveragedloans #levfin

Bloomberg - Ares’ Arougheti Sees More Deals as PE Investors Clamor for Cash Ares Management Corp. Chief Executive Officer Mike Arougheti said the firm’s pipeline for lending to middle-market buyouts — a key business area — is growing as private equity sponsors look for cash. “Investors are clamoring to get their money back,” he said Wednesday at the Bloomberg Invest conference in New York. Ares isn’t seeing any cracks in private credit, Arougheti said. The firm has close to 4,000 middle-market investments, and credit performance has remained strong, he said. Maintaining the performance of its credit book will be essential for Ares as it builds assets under management to its goal of $750 billion by 2028, from $428 billion at the end of the first quarter. https://lnkd.in/emeAxnnJ Slide - Ares Investor Day 2024 /May 21, 2024 https://ir.aresmgmt.com/

M&A’s path to recovery has been solidly tracking upward as private equity’s share of M&A dealmaking has rebounded. PE’s slice of total M&A deal value hit 41% in Q2, up from 33.5% in the previous quarter. With banks lending again for leveraged buyouts, this has helped lower borrowing costs, and large take-privates have surged. Our Q2 2024 Global M&A Report, sponsored by Liberty GTS and Clear Street, covers the trends shaping M&A dealmaking by region and sector—and how these developments may set the stage for an active second half of the year. 

Private credit continued to gain traction as an asset class, as evidenced by Goldman Sachs' recent achievement of amassing a formidable $21 billion war chest for senior direct lending strategies. Here is the breakdown:  - 𝐔𝐒𝐃 13.1𝐁  --> West Street Loan Partners V (including LP equity commitments, long-term asset financing, and GS's balance sheet) - 𝐔𝐒𝐃 550𝐌 --> Co-investment vehicles - 𝐔𝐒𝐃 7𝐁 --> Separate accounts GS has set an ambitious target to more than double its private credit portfolio to USD 300B from the current USD 130B within the next five years! Notably, in addition to institutional investors, commitments have been made by wealthy retail clients and UHNWs. An increasing number of banks and asset managers are tapping into private wealth for capital fundraising. West Street Loan Partners V has invested or committed USD 4 billion across 37 portfolio companies. Goldman Sachs Asset Management #privatecredit #M&A #merger #acquisitions #directlending #privatewealth #seniorlending #UHNW #institutionalinvestors #alternatives #GoldmanSachsAlternatives #returnofcapital