Benchmark prior transactions, bonds, loans or company profiles using over 300 credit metrics.

Comparables

AI transcripts & instant analysis, making earnings season easier than ever.

Earnings

A full suite of ESG data and analysis. Built for your workflow

Spot undervalued credits and potential future restructurings with our purpose-built tools.

Distressed and Restructuring

Full Financial profiles with 3 statements, KPIs, segment splits & credit metrics. All traced to source documents.

Financials

New deal analysis and covenant comparison tools, understand key risks in seconds not days.

Covenants

Say goodbye to CTRL + F with our powerful search. Thousands of documents text searchable for any keyword or phrase.

Search

We've successfully predicted more than 65 price sensitive events - before they happened.

Deal predictions

We use AI to aggregate newsflow from 2,000 sources, and deliver it to your inbox quicker than anyone else.

News

Track high yield deals from issuance through to maturity, with integrated legal, credit and ESG analysis.

High Yield Bonds

Shine a light on private markets with 9fin's news and legal analysis of syndicated loans

Leveraged Loans

21st century tech and expert analysis to help CLO teams make informed decisions faster.

Structured Credit 

Find information others can't see in one of the fastest growing corners of finance

Private Credit 

Sami Vukelj

Peter Benson

The Unicrunch is our US private credit newsletter, in which we break down everything from unitranches to ABL. Sign up for the inside track on this fast-growing market.

Citigroup and Apollo have paired up to launch a new $25bn private credit program, adding another name to the growing list of bank-PC partnerships.

Some players are finding that cooperation can lead to better outcomes than competition when it comes to banks and direct lenders, reframing the narrative around their relationship. It’s less traditional banks versus PC firms narrative, but rather battles between PC and bank tag-teams.

In this hybridized arrangement, where banks and direct lenders operate as a sort of joint platform designed to capture the widest possible range of borrowers between the two, there could still be niches for those who aren’t quite at 25 big ones.

Wells Fargo’s strategic relationship with Centerbridge Partners, for example, is focused on non-sponsored middle market companies, putting it in a completely different lane than the Apollo-Citi program, which is geared towards corporate and large-cap sponsor-backed companies.

The benefits offered by these sorts of arrangements — for banks, being able to offer more solutions for clients and for lenders, greater access to financing opportunities — still apply here, even if they operate at the lower end of the market.

Other strategies, however, involve more overlap. Thus recreating some of the competition these firms are familiar with in their respective markets. Barclays’ agreement with AGL Credit Management, for example, is geared towards large corporate borrowers and seeking opportunities at “the convergence of the private credit, broadly syndicated loan, and high yield bond markets,” according to the press release.

Citi and Apollo will be hoping to court the same set of upper middle market borrowers. And more broadly they’ll all still have to contend with the high degree of competition coming from other banks and lenders.

But for now Apollo’s program stands out for its scale, as they anticipate potentially financing more than $25bn worth of debt in the coming years through this program. While some of the other largest direct lenders may have the capacity to deploy capital at a similar scale, only few have brought them to a bank partnership — yet.

It’s no secret that Chinese electric vehicles are leaving most of their competition in the dust. Chinese firms, led by BYD, are producing more models, more cheaply, and at less cost to the end consumer.

As the election is getting close, the US government is focused heavily on all things China, with EVs being a key part of its strategy. The Biden administration has finalized 100% tariffs on the vehicles themselves, as well as smaller but still burdensome tariffs on component parts. This week, there has been mention of even tougher measures in the form of an outright ban on Chinese and Russian software for the vehicles.

The government isn’t only focused on curbing external forces, looking at its own EV industry and trying to grow it with the help of private credit. Monroe, a middle market direct lender, has been selected by the White House to be a provider of bespoke loans to EV businesses in the US to help them grow.

Monroe is targeting a fundraise of around $1bn for its inaugural fund focused on the EV market. The Drive Forward Fund could be the first of a series of funds targeting original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and tier 1-3 businesses that support the manufacturing of the vehicles.

Private credit may be the perfect solution because it fills a financing gap. “For a lot of these businesses, it is difficult for them to acquire highly regulated financial institution capital,” Alex Parmacek, portfolio manager for the fund, told 9fin.

The majority of the fund will be focused on the smaller tier 2 and tier 3 auto parts manufacturers, software providers, and battery manufacturing companies. The goal is to make the sector in the US more robust and liquid in order to stave off competition from elsewhere, namely China.

Whether the program is successful will be predicated on how quickly the capital can allow US-made vehicles to compete on price. Monroe is still in the process of applying for SBA licensing in order to provide government-backed loans as part of the offering. It expects to begin investing later this year, Parmacek said.

While tariffs and bans try to slow the march of Chinese EVs in the western hemisphere, will private credit’s support help the US catch up? Probably best to put your seatbelt on and get ready for a long drive.

9Questions — Mark Wilton, Corinthia — Back with a bang (free to read)

Video interview — Joel Magerman, Bryant Park Capital — Private credit’s push into asset-based finance (free to watch)

Monroe partners with the White House to make automotive loans

Blackstone leads $2bn refi of The Fidelis Partnership

Direct lenders back Kohlberg’s CLEAResult buyout

New Mexico LP to commit over $1bn annually to private credit over next five years

Vensure — the Stone Point-backed employees services management company is looking to refinance around $2bn in debt

Anaqua — the Astorg-backed IP software firm is up for sale with the help of Jefferies and Arma Partners

MRI Software — in the market for a repricing of its existing $2.5bn debt and is seeking a $250m incremental loan for additional M&A

Bonus-starved bankers are jumping ship for private credit riches (BBG)

Interest rate cuts don’t spell doom for private credit (WealthManagement.com)

Rich Chinese chase 22% yields in private credit despite risks (BBG)

Private credit faces worst reckoning since ‘08, NY Life CIO says (BBG)

Join us at Invisso's Private Credit Connect: in Miami on October 21 

Enjoyed this weekly wrap? Our customers receive this content ahead of the crowd — find out more about 9fin’s news and analysis.

🍪 Our Cookies

The Unicrunch — The $25bn opportunity and private credit gets political

Citi lights

Read all our public content for free

Recently Published

Cloud 9fin — Distressed Diaries — Fly on the wall to Altice France debt negotiations

9Questions — Thomas Kyriakoudis and Ilina Chen, LGT Capital Partners — taking a multi-strategy approach

Excess Spread — Spot the arb, new generation, picks and shovels

Consumer Cellular lines up dividend recap with private credit

What are you waiting for?