The Carlyle Group

Following our recent announcement agreeing to acquire an approximately $10.1 billion portfolio of prime student loans from Discover Financial Services, Akhil Bansal, Head of Credit Strategic Solutions, spoke with Sonali Basak on Bloomberg TV to discuss specifics around the transaction, as well as other opportunities in asset-backed finance more broadly. “We're focused on really high-quality types of lending, and we have some thematic views at Carlyle that we're expressing that through,” he said. “We're always looking where we have an information advantage when we're looking into the pools that we're buying. It's not just about looking at a FICO score, it's about how can we use our platform, and the breadth of it, to pull insights out of it that make us a better buyer, and Discover is a good example.” To learn more, watch the full segment here: http://spr.ly/6045cwBxt

In this week’s edition of The Carlyle Compass, Jason Thomas, Head of Global Research & Investment Strategy, offers a midyear review of major macro developments anticipated earlier in the year in our annual outlook piece, Five Questions for 2024. Read here: http://spr.ly/6049cVaQv Jason touches on: ➡️ How U.S. politics and the upcoming election intersects with the current global economic complexity. ➡️ Why higher interest rates were not the stock market headwind many expected. ➡️ The real estate market, and why lower rates are not likely to be a panacea. For more of The Carlyle Compass, which brings together the latest research and market insights from our global team, request to subscribe here: global.research@carlyle.com

In this month’s #podcast episode, Peter Cornelius, Chief Economist for AlpInvest Partners, joins Jason Thomas for a discussion about what he’s seeing and hearing from AlpInvest investors in light of the current economic landscape. Listen to Insights & Indicators: http://spr.ly/6046cHeMY

Today, Carlyle’s #GlobalCredit platform announced that it has provided a financing package to support the acquisition of Superstruct Entertainment, one of Europe’s leading live entertainment groups, owning and operating more than 80 music festivals across 10 countries in Europe and Australia, by KKR. Superstruct has a well-diversified portfolio across geographies and music genres and has grown significantly since inception to become a leading player within a highly fragmented music festival market. Its portfolio includes some of Europe’s most popular and high-quality festivals, such as Wacken Open Air, Defqon.1, Parookaville, Sziget, Tinderbox, Boardmasters, and Sónar. This transaction will support Superstruct as it looks to consolidate its position as a global, top-tier live entertainment platform, continuing to capture organic growth opportunities and through M&A. Otto A., Managing Director in Carlyle Global Credit, said: “We are delighted to support KKR’s acquisition of Superstruct, a company well positioned to meet the accelerated demand for live entertainment, as it continues to deliver its portfolio of events to a growing global audience. This transaction is testament to our ability to partner with experienced sponsors to support the growth aspirations of strong and resilient businesses.”

On this episode of "Insights From the PM's Desk," Carlyle’s Deputy Chief Investment Officer for Global Credit, Justin Plouffe, discusses the current macroeconomic picture, trends in private credit markets and our outlook for both. He sees the higher-for-longer rate environment benefiting private credit yields and expects deal activity to pick up in the second half of the year. Watch the full episode below, and to learn more visit: http://spr.ly/6044iLrNC

Today, Carlyle and KKR announced that through strategic partnerships comprised of funds and accounts managed by their respective credit businesses, they have agreed to purchase an approximately $10.1 billion portfolio of prime student loans from Discover Financial Services. Monogram, a portfolio company of Carlyle, will serve as portfolio manager for the student loan portfolio. Akhil Bansal, Head of Credit Strategic Solutions at Carlyle said: “This acquisition highlights Carlyle’s proven expertise in private student loans and asset-backed finance, demonstrating our Global Credit business’s ability to provide scaled, tailored solutions to meet our clients’ dynamic needs. As the lending space evolves, we believe private markets are well-positioned to offer financial institutions increased flexibility amidst this transformation.” Carlyle’s investment was led by the Credit Strategic Solutions team, a highly experienced group within our Global Credit business focused on asset-backed investments. Read more here: http://spr.ly/6040ieIwi

“As far as M&A, we believe there will be an increase this year. We’re starting to see trickles of that in the leveraged loan market – there’s stability in the market, and financing markets are wide open. So, if you want to acquire a company and use loans to back it, it’s available to you… We expect to be busier with M&A than we were last year.” – Lauren Basmadjian, Global Head of Liquid Credit at Carlyle Lauren joined Alix Steel and Romaine Bostick, CFA on Bloomberg to discuss the state of the leveraged loan market and the outlook for M&A activity. Carlyle, as one of the largest #CLO managers globally with over $50 billion in assets, has access to extensive lending data from over 600 US companies. Watch here: http://spr.ly/60439AFIW

Carlyle’s Global Credit platform has co-led a financing package to support the acquisition of Gruppo Animalia, the leading provider of veterinary care services in Italy, by Charme Capital Partners. Founded in 2019, Animalia has become the leading platform in the veterinary sector in Italy, with more than 75 clinics spread across 13 Italian regions. The company covers the full suite of veterinary services, with a specific focus on advanced medical and second-opinion services. This transaction will support Animalia to further expand its network of clinics and accelerate its growth plans. Nicola Falcinelli, Deputy Head of European Private Credit, said: “We are delighted to support Charme’s acquisition of Animalia, a business that is well positioned to meet the growing and resilient demand for veterinary care services in Italy. This transaction exemplifies our established strategy of partnering with high-quality sponsors and family-owned companies in supporting the build-up of strong, resilient businesses.”

We’re pleased to announce our continued partnership with Manulife Investment Management following our successful collaboration in 2019 on Manulife Private Equity Partners. This second transaction was seeded with an existing portfolio of private equity fund interests and co-investments representing more than 30 leading private equity managers. Michael Hacker, Partner at AlpInvest, said: "Having worked with Manulife IM to select the seed portfolio, we are excited to invest in the second fund which consists of high-quality North American buyout investments managed entirely by longstanding AlpInvest relationship GPs." Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gVVr33dd

We are pleased to announce Willi Westenberger's inclusion on the annual Rising Stars of Private Equity list for 2024 run by Private Equity News. Willi, based in Munich, is a Principal in Carlyle’s European buyout team. Congratulations, Willi! Read his full profile: http://spr.ly/60469lkDo This award was announced on June 30, 2024, from Private Equity News. No compensation was paid by Carlyle for the award.