Articles featuring:
Private Debt
Digital lending emerges as an important sub-segment of private debt
Amid increasing breadth within the private debt asset class, specialised investors can allocate capital to sub segments in a bid to improve diversification and overall returns. Digital lenders - non-bank lenders that rely on external investors to fund originations - are playing an increasing role in lending to consumers and [...]
Due diligence on digital lenders
While investing in the originations of digital lenders can be attractive to investors, a robust and detailed due diligence framework is essential before deploying funds. Because there are often differences between lenders, such as reporting and data, it is essential to have a standardised approach to due diligence, combining [...]
Digital lenders set to see spike in demand from businesses as Covid guarantee scheme loans expire
With European government aid schemes coming to an end, digital lenders have a lucrative opportunity to write considerably more business. Traditional banks are often reluctant to dive head first into the SME sector - they often don’t have the back-end infrastructure they need to make servicing large numbers of [...]
The role of private debt as a portfolio diversifier for institutional investors
Amid the low yields on offer on traditional fixed-income assets, private debt is emerging as a strong alternative. For institutional investors, adding private debt exposures to their portfolios can help improve diversification due to the low correlation of private debt to equities and fixed income, as well as an [...]
Data and analytics can give private debt funds an edge in the race to deploy capital
Investment funds specialised in investing in private debt can be an attractive route to gain exposure to this alternative asset class. Yet data on the volumes of undeployed capital - dry powder - in the private debt fund segment globally suggest strong competition for attractive deals. When it comes to [...]
‘As a Service’ companies are growing fast – and so are the demands for debt financing
Businesses and consumers alike are drawn to the convenience and flexibility offered by ‘as a Service’ companies, including companies which operate within the fields of mobility, equipment, or infrastructure like solar panels. For such companies, fast growth and scaling is often coupled with the need to invest in equipment, [...]
2021 Recap – Major Trends in Private Debt
2021 was an eventful year for private debt in Europe. The enduring low-yield environment saw continued demand for private debt offerings, in part due to the illiquidity premium on offer. For some banks, the prospect of enhanced capital requirements will increase the popularity of originate-to-distribute and balance sheet light [...]
How growth success factors have changed over time for European lending platforms
Over the past few years, we have engaged with more than 70 credit platforms. We have drawn many learnings from these onboarding processes. Since all of these platforms have gone through some form of due diligence process with us and since we maintain close relationships to their teams, we [...]
The challenges of investing in private debt – a US / Europe comparison
From time to time, I receive newsletter emails with the headline “X invested Y million in Z”. Anyone who has played an active role in a process that led to such a headline knows how supercharged the word “to invest” is with painful processes - all nighters, all the [...]
Challenges that alternative lenders and marketplaces face when connecting with experienced capital markets investors
First of all, I need to confess something: While CrossLend is a capital markets technology provider today, we started out as a P2P lending platform. We stopped our P2P operations a long time ago for a number of reasons, but the main reason was: complexity. While I cannot state [...]
The rising importance of private debt as an asset class
There is an academic and slightly boring way of lecturing about private debt as an asset class. It goes somewhat like this: yields are low, new investable assets are needed, and here is a few charts about a trendline showing that the year to year growth rates are climbing [...]