Finastra, which is headquartered in the UK but owned by US sponsor Vista Equity Partners, provides software to clients in the financial sector, focused on areas such as risk management, compliance, and payments.

It has been considering a refinancing for some time: in January we reported that the company and its sponsor had engaged in talks with its lenders, which include several large private credit firms. Since then, syndicated debt markets have continued to see strong investor demand.

Finastra’s existing private debt was issued in late 2023 to refinance syndicated loans. At the time, the deal set a new record for the largest private credit deal ever, and it didn’t come cheap — to get it over the line, Vista pumped in $1bn of fresh equity, with the help of a NAV loan.

If this latest refinancing effort clears the syndicated market, it could put Finastra back in the portfolios of investors that were relieved to be taken out by private credit back in 2023.

Back then, some lenders were becoming concerned about potential write-downs on their holdings as Finastra struggled with poor financial performance. Over recent months, however, the syndicated loan market has markedly improved and Finastra appears to be turning a corner.

Late last year, Vista engaged Evercore to help sell Finastra’s capital markets division, and a couple of months ago the company appointed a new CEO. Since then, it has announced a new partnership to expand digital wallets to more clients.

The company has also had some less positive news, however, as it began outreach to clients that were impacted in a data breach in November 2024.

Finastra, Vista and Morgan Stanley declined to comment for this article. A representative for JPM did not offer comment by the time of publication.