Credit Suisse Teams Up With #Qatar for Direct Lending Venture - Bloomberg

Credit Suisse Teams Up With Qatar for Direct Lending Venture - Bloomberg:

Credit Suisse Group AG and Qatar Investment Authority are joining forces to set up a multi-billion dollar platform to invest in direct lending.

The partnership will make loans to upper middle-market and large-cap companies in the U.S. and Europe, the Swiss bank and QIA said in a joint statement Thursday. The financing will mainly consist of first or second ranked loans which are secured against the business.

Sovereign wealth funds were important early investors in the now $850 billion private debt asset class with players like Singapore’s GIC establishing their own direct investment teams. In July, Apollo Global Management said it would seek to lend about $12 billion over the next three years via a financing platform anchored by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co.

The partnership is part of a trend among sovereign wealth funds moving into private markets to seek higher yields, said Diego Lopez, a managing director at Global SWF, a data provider. Global SWF has seen higher levels of activity by sovereign wealth funds this month, implying that investors think that the worst of Covid-19 may be over, added Lopez.