Deals
Subprime Auto Defaults Are Soaring, and PE Firms Have No Way Out
- No market for PE exits as car demand wanes, loan losses mount
- Lax underwriting, delinquencies plague PE-backed auto finance
PE Firms in for Bumpy Ride as Subprime Auto Defaults Soar
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Private-equity firms that plunged headlong into subprime auto lending are discovering just how hard it might be to get out.
A Perella Weinberg Partners fund has been sitting on an IPO of Flagship Credit Acceptance for two years as bad loan write-offs push it into the red. Blackstone Group LP has struggled to make Exeter Finance profitable, despite sinking almost a half-billion dollars into the lender since 2011 and shaking up the C-suite multiple times. And Wall Street bankers in private say others would love to cash out too, but there’s currently no market for such exits.