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GIC is looking at the prospective €4bn private debt package for Blackstone and Permira’s buyout of Adevinta as part of a lender club being put together by the sponsors, according to sources familiar with the matter. 

9fin previously reported Goldman Sachs' private credit arm was the front-runner to provide financing. But GIC is in talks with the deal sponsors to form a separate investor club for the debt, sources told 9fin. 

“It’s the hot thing in the market and GIC is going to have stiff competition from other clubs, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it could set up its own,” said a fund manager not on the deal.

Goldman is forming its club of investors with tickets of around €500m-plus and the deal leveraged at 6x, as previously reported by 9fin.

The buyout’s sponsors are conducting a dual-track process, with private debt and syndicated bids. If the deal ultimately goes to the direct lenders, it would become Europe’s largest private credit transaction.

Access Group, which received £3.5bn of debt financing in June 2022 from a club of lenders, remains the largest private credit deal on the continent to date. 

Adevinta, an online classifieds company, would not be alone in running a dual-track process to sound out the syndicated and private credit market. IRIS Software is another borrower currently taking the same approach.

GIC declined to comment.