Market Wrap
Excess Spread — The Atlas ask, cross-pollination, no interest
- Owen Sanderson
•12 min read
Excess Spread is our weekly newsletter, covering trends, deals and more in structured credit and ABS. Find out more about 9fin for structured credit.
Is Atlas a trade or a business?
Atlas SP Partners is a new thing in the world, and it’s been controversial since it was first carved out from Credit Suisse in early 2023 — not because of the people, which are generally reckoned first rate, but because of the whole idea.
Two main questions have hung over the business model, both relating to where Atlas SP sits in the competitive landscape.
- Why would the ecosystem of specialist lenders and non-banks, mostly owned by private equity / alternative investment funds want to go to Apollo (the majority shareholder of Atlas) for their funding?
- How would the bankers at Atlas succeed in carving out market share if they have a higher cost of capital than their peers?