Scott Carpenter’s Post

Private equity firms are muscling into the world of life insurance and retirement savings and shaking up the business. That matters for the nest-eggs of millions of savers. Insurers that have become major business lines in private equity firm’s push beyond buyouts — such as Apollo’s Athene Holding Ltd. — invest more in private credit products that the PE firms create, arguing they provide better returns than the Treasuries or corporate debt favored by the old guard. Traditional insurers contend the products come with too much risk and could blow up in times of stress, even though their private-credit investments have ticked up. Story by Allison McNeely, Marion Halftermeyer, and Silla Brush #privateequity #insurance #privatecredit #wallstreet

Private credit lenders have agreed to take ownership of Pluralsight Inc., three years after Vista Equity Partners bought the educational-software company, in a markedly swift unraveling of a private equity investment. Story by Paula Seligson, Ellen Rose Schneider and Jill R. Shah #privatecredit #privateequity #PE

Golub Capital is boosting its trading of private credit deals, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest evidence of growing interest among some industry players in developing a secondary market for direct loans. Story by Ellen Rose Schneider, Libby Cherry and Kat Hidalgo #privatecredit #leveragedfinance #directlending

Billionaire Charles Koch’s closely held company is cashing in on the appetite of individuals for one of the riskiest corners of the loan market. When money manager Sound Point Capital Management recently started a new closed-end fund tied to loans, an affiliate of the Koch family bought a large portion of it. The fund, Sound Point Meridian Capital, invests in CLO equity, securities that ­are first in line to absorb losses on loans to leveraged companies that are packaged into collateralized loan obligations. Story by Miles Weiss #CLOs #Kochindustries #kochbrothers #koch #collateralizedloanobligation #leveragedfinance

First the private credit firms came for the banking industry’s lucrative corporate loan business. Now they’re grabbing a chunk of their consumer-lending work. The pressing question for this thriving multi-trillion dollar industry is whether it has timed its latest incursion badly. Story by Abhinav Ramnarayan and Kat Hidalgo #privatecredit #consumers #directlending

Apartment giant Equity Residential said it has agreed to purchase 11 apartment complexes with more than 3,500 units for $964 million, the latest big investor bet that rents and values are poised for a rebound. Its acquisition of the garden apartments and other types of rental units in the Atlanta, Denver and Dallas/Fort Worth regions marks the biggest U.S. multifamily purchase by any public real estate investment trust in the past seven years. Story by WSJ's Peter Grant

Prospect Capital, a little-known New York firm that helped pioneer the private credit boom, has come up with an unusual technique to keep dividends flowing out of an $8 billion fund it runs. For years now, it’s sold financial instruments to retail investors and handed over the proceeds to shareholders. Concerns about its sustainability are growing. Story by John Sage #privatecredit #funds #finance #privatecapital

From this excellent Bloomberg News story that explains why markets were so crazy today, a nice explanation of one of the reasons: "In early July — just as tech stocks were hitting a peak — the Japanese yen began appreciating sharply as investors positioned for the Bank of Japan to join other central banks in pulling back its flood of monetary stimulus. That drove traders to unwind so-called carry trades, which involve borrowing relatively cheaply in Japan and investing elsewhere, to preserve profits they made. This in turn exerted selling pressure on markets worldwide as borrowed money was returned." Story by Ruth Carson, Lu Wang, Vildana Hajric and Bailey Lipschultz #markets #equities #stocks #bonds #yen #fed #interestrates #recession #carrytrade

South Korean investors — eager for a slice of the biggest commercial property market in the world — bet big on riskier loans for office buildings from New York to Los Angeles. But now, with high borrowing costs and slumping property prices, more investors are trying to pull back from that mezzanine debt and taking a massive hit on their way out. Story by Neil Callanan and Natalie Wong #offices #southkorea #realestate #CRE

Apollo Global Management, Inc. and a group of banks led by Bank of America and Barclays have been holding restructuring talks for a slug of Brightspeed debt that could see the banks take a loss, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The roughly $5 billion Brightspeed debt load has been a thorn in banks’ side since they agreed in 2021 to provide financing to fund Apollo’s purchase of the telecommunications assets. Story by Reshmi Basu, Allison McNeely, Paula Seligson and Jeannine Amodeo #hungdebt #syndicatedloans #interestrates