Joining other firms looking to fill Europe’s corporate credit gap, Partners Group has raised a €375 million ($480 million) fund that will invest in senior secured bank loans and make direct loans to midmarket companies, the firm said today in a statement.
Partners Group Private Markets Credit Strategies 2012 will focus on providing senior debt financing to companies with a €250 million to €2 billion market cap. The fund has an expected ramp-up period of 12 months.
Partners Group, a global private markets investment manager with 15 offices worldwide, intends to offer similar programs to its institutional clients on a regular basis in the future, the statement said.
With European banks still facing capital constraints and expiring investment periods for European CLOs, not to mention regulatory challenges, European issuers have found themselves with diminished funding sources since the financial crises. And this is only expected to exacerbate as many companies face upcoming refinancing needs.
Partners Group is not the only asset management firm looking to capitalize on Europe’s debt supply/demand imbalance. Most recently, London-based ECM Asset Management launched a European senior secured fund that will invest in loans and bonds.
Partners Group, with more than €25 billion in assets under management, is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and has offices in San Francisco, New York, São Paulo, London, Guernsey, Paris, Luxembourg, Munich, Dubai, Singapore, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and Sydney. The firm employs over 600 people and is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.
