Direct Lending Boom Fizzles With Investors Looking Elsewhere
- North American direct lending fund inflow below previous years
- Investors use money to take advantage of pandemic dislocation
Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
Direct lending fundraising is slowing this year amid increasing competition from other investment strategies that take advantage of the financial and economic turmoil during the pandemic.
Fourteen vehicles focused on direct lending in North America have raised $10.2 billion in 2020, below the $14.2 billion during the first half of 2019, according to London-based research firm Preqin. It’s unlikely that money earmarked for the strategy will top the $29.7 billion brought in during all of 2019 or hit the peak of $34 billion from 2017.