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Welcome to Taking the Credit, 9fin’s weekly observations on the issues affecting the European private credit market. Find out more about what we do for private credit.

Game-changing goals in the last minute, record-breaking performances, jumps from one team to another — private credit is not a game for the faint of heart.

Coming into the summer, some would have expected the time to fully enjoy the European Football Championship, or the Paris Olympic Games. But August is here and it’s not yet time to catch a break. This market is still providing plenty of emotions.

This week, Arctos Partners scored a deal to finance the management buyout of Hayfin Capital, in an agreement which valued the firm at about €1.2bn. The match was long and competitive, with big teams such as MetLife looking at the opportunity to acquire Hayfin as a means to entering the private credit market.

Founded in 2019, headquartered in Dallas, and with offices in New York and London, Arctos is very close to leading experts in defensive and attack strategies. As a private equity firm focusing first on professional sports franchises, it has invested in teams such as Paris Saint-Germain and the Boston Red Sox.

The deal with Hayfin was a move coming from its second strategy, Arctos Keystone, which was launched last year to expand into broader private markets. The agreement between the firms was an “alignment” due to fitting team cultures, sources told 9fin.

Arctos Keystone has underwritten 100% of the funding and will facilitate the Hayfin team becoming the majority owners of the common equity, buying out the controlling stake held by British Columbia Investment Management Corp. BCI acquired a majority stake in the firm in January 2017 and will remain a strategic limited partner in certain Hayfin funds.

Hayfin, with €31bn in assets under management, said it does not expect changes in strategy, investment process, or leadership. But with a new-look team in the field, there will no doubt be new aspirations.

9fin produced the medal table of most active private credit lenders ahead of the start of the Olympic Games.

Looking at our H1 2024 review, the Simone Biles of the sector is clearly Ares Management, which once again dominated rankings both in terms of the total deals and for the mid-market deal count.

This week the firm has performed yet another impressive vault completing the final closing of its Senior Direct Lending III fund, breaking records for the sector with $34bn being raised. $15.3bn was in the form of equity commitments (no coincidence that Biles scored her individual gold with a 15.3 score in the women’s vault).

The competition for fundraising is strong with the biggest, most experienced teams increasingly polarising the market. So far this year we have seen HPS Investment Partners, reaching $21.1bn in investable capital for its Specialty Loan Fund VI, Goldman Sachs arriving at a $13.4bn raise for its West Street Loan Partners V fund. And Arcmont Asset Management is aiming to raise over €12bn for its fifth European direct lending fund.

Some teams are taking the opportunity to refresh their squad lists. One of the latest moves involves Luke Gillam, who has left his role as Goldman Sachs’ head of EMEA credit finance capital markets to become head of senior private credit at AlbaCore, as Bloomberg first reported.

Gillam’s focus will be on AlbaCore’s European senior secured private debt fund with a target to raise over €2bn during the rest of this year and into next year, according to 9fin sources.

AlbaCore is expanding into senior secured private debt  in synergy with its existing platform which is active across capital solutions, opportunistic credit, CLO management and structured credit. The goal is to have a differentiated position within Europe as a senior secured private lender and a “one-stop shop” for counterparties, sources said.

This summer, 9fin has reported on several moves from a team to an another. In early July, CPPIB promoted Ben Mason to head of European credit, replacing Derek Jackson, who is heading to Apax PartnersApax Partners.

This year private credit has felt the pressure from BSL, but occasionally it has struck back. In one example, Vista Equity and BC Partners are looking to move from the syndicated to the private debt market for the £1bn refinancingof OneAdvanced (formerly Advanced Computer Software).

Finally, a reminder that in sport, as in private credit, occasionally players are forced to change their strategy, or simply to give up.

This week, we have reported on a few pulled deals. Roark Capital has ditched the sale of its portfolio company IMO Car Wash due to a valuation mismatch. Meanwhile Searchlight Capital and M&G Investments have pulled their attempted sale of safety equipment manufacturer Survitec’s defence arm, amidst concerns over its ESG credentials.

Halder has also decided to abandon plans to sell German medical breast care product manufacturer Amoena and instead is looking to refinance it.

For the full run down on all the in-market deals in our pipeline, email subscriptions@9fin.com.

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