PDI awards 2016: Golub, SSG among big winners

The results are in, and Golub Capital has emerged with the biggest haul from our 2016 awards, bagging four categories in the Americas section: lender, senior lender, BDC, and CLO manager.

Golub, which went one better than its three awards in 2015, originated $8.8 billion in new loans in 2016, with roles in the standout PetValu and Qlik debt transactions. It also had a strong fundraising year, with new commitments from investors over 50 percent higher than the previous year and a series of closes on its 10th fund which eventually posted a final close on $1.76 billion in January.

Hong Kong-based SSG Capital Management, which won four awards in 2015, had to settle for three this time as it took the Asia-Pacific lender, distressed debt investor and fundraising categories. Another hat-trick was recorded by Citi, which took the placement agent crowns in the Americas and Europe as well as the fund financier title in Asia-Pacific.

LCM Partners, Macquarie, Oaktree Capital Management, Partners Group, Spire Partners and TPG also recorded victories in more than one category.

Special mention should go to Pemberton, which has gone from winning our global newcomer award in 2015 to global fund manager of the year within the space of 12 months. This is a notable achievement for a Europe-based manager given the dominance of large, US-headquartered firms within the asset class.

In total, we had 43 categories in which to vote in 2016 – the largest number ever. We also recorded the highest number of voters, moving up from around 3,000 12 months ago to more than 4,000 this time.

Our voting ran through December into early January, with our readers able to make selections in as many or as few categories as they liked. One important proviso was that no one was allowed to vote for their own firm.

The voting was carefully policed to ensure that our awards retained their reputation for being independent, with all of our winners riding to victory on the back of votes cast by their peers.

Below is the table of winners in full: