As the most highly developed region for private debt, the North American market is also at a later stage of the credit cycle than the European or Asian marketplaces. Strong growth in, and demand for, middle-market direct lending in recent years appears to have levelled off in 2015 according to fundraising figures in the region.
Given fundraising success across the asset class, dry powder levels have continued to increase to a current high of USD144 billion, suggesting that as many new players have entered the private debt space since 2008, they have done so successfully in terms of fundraising. It will be interesting to follow these figures moving forward, as it is yet to be seen if a more crowded lending marketplace could lead to easing in underwriting standards to facilitate deal flow.
Across all private debt funds globally, there has been a decrease the median amount of capital called-up since 2012, perhaps due to the higher number of managers in the private lending arena competing to access a finite pool of transactions.
Preqin’s recent factsheet brings together the latest data to provide an overview of the North American private debt market, looking at dry powder, fundraising, the largest funds currently in market and more.
