– Private debt
The definition of private debt investment, for the purposes of this ranking, is: capital committed by investors to a dedicated programme of investing in the debt of private companies, or the non-bank debt financing of leveraged buyouts, infrastructure projects and real estate. This includes distressed debt, fund of private debt funds, royalty financing, senior debt, subordinated / mezzanine debt, unitranche, and venture debt.
Both investors with a defined allocation to private debt, as well as those which are active investors in PD funds but may not have a defined allocation, are considered for this ranking. Where the investments are made in what may be termed a “grey area”, we reserve the right to make the final judgment based on applicability according to our definition.
We understand that investors’ definition of private debt may not entirely mirror the definition given above. Hence, we will use discretion to determine the most appropriate figure for each investor profiled.
– Structures and strategies
Capital committed or invested through the following strategies should be included:
- Funds (both open-ended and closed-ended)
- Separately managed accounts
- Commitments to private debt fund managers that happen to be publicly traded
- Capital committed to co-investment vehicles
- Direct investments
Investors with direct lending platforms themselves are also considered for this ranking. For consistency purposes, Private Debt Investor aims to separate private debt direct lending from investment commitments. Where this separation has not been made available, a clear indication of this will be made on the published ranking.
