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Europe’s largest ever private credit deal — the €4.5bn debt backing Blackstone and Permira’s take private of Oslo-listed online advertiser Adevinta — closed this week, evidence that private credit is the debt of choice to take down jumbo financings and moving the dial on the depth of the European private credit market.

After a month of valuation wrangling, Blackstone and Permira reached an agreement with Adevinta’s shareholders, and, with that, the colossal €4.5bn private credit financing came into being.

But Adevinta means more to European private credit than sheer size. It is also, according to one source, “the return of relationship lending even in difficult times”, it is an indication of “Europe’s might” and a “resurgence of deal activity in H2 of the year”, according to a second one.