Lender of the Year

1 Golub Capital
2 KKR
3 Owl Rock

Golub Capital closed $35.8 billion in financing commitments, exceeding its record origination from the same period last year, and closed more than 310 transactions across an array of facility sizes and execution types. It was a market leader in “mega one-stops” (unitranches above $500 million) as sponsors valued the reliability and scalability that unitranches can provide, especially for buy-and-build strategies. Golub led or co-led 52 mega one-stops, accounting for more than 60 percent of all mega one-stop deals completed in the year ended 30 September, 2022.

Senior Lender of the Year

1 Ares Management
2 Golub Capital
3 Churchill Asset Management

Ares Management’s US direct lending strategy has invested approximately $113 billion across around 1,600 investments since inception in 2004. It has invested $33 billion in the last 12 months, serving as lead arranger on around 86 percent of deals. Also in the past year, the team evaluated more than 1,400 investment opportunities with an approximate 4.7 percent closing rate.

Junior Lender of the Year

1. KKR
2. Audax Private Debt
3. Churchill Asset Management

With more than $70 billion in private credit AUM, KKR’s private credit platform provides senior and junior capital solutions to corporate and non-corporate borrowers in the US, Europe and Asia. Across junior debt investments, the firm focuses on directly originating a diversified portfolio of predominantly floating rate, private junior debt investments generating a mid-teens net IRR for investors. In particular, the firm targets leading large-cap businesses in defensive sectors across the US, Europe and Asia, where it aims to be the sole or co-lead lender, maintaining significant influence over documentation.

Lower Mid-Market Lender of the Year

1 Monroe Capital
2 Twin Brook Capital Partners
3 LBC Credit Partners

Monroe Capital’s AUM expanded 25 percent from $11.2 billion to $14.1 billion (as of 10 January). Monroe invested in 124 directly originated transactions with 69 unique private equity sponsors and independent sponsors, totalling more than $6.2 billion, which represented a record level of activity. In April 2022, the firm had its final close on Monroe Capital Private Credit Fund IV with $4.8 billion of investable capital, including targeted fund leverage and separately managed accounts investing alongside the fund.

BDC of the Year

1 Owl Rock
2 KKR
3 Hercules Capital

Owl Rock’s flagship fund, ORCC, ended Q3 with $12.8 billion in total portfolio investments and total net assets of $5.8 billion. Across the fund, credit performance continues to be strong. As of 30 September, nearly 90 percent of the portfolio was comprised of companies where the borrowers were performing in line or better than expected. The fund has one of the lowest loss rates in the sector at less than 15bps per year since inception. It has a well-diversified financing structure, benefiting from four investment grade ratings.

Distressed Debt and Special Situations Investor of the Year

1 GoldenTree Asset Management
2 Marathon Asset Management
3 Balbec Capital

Since the firm’s inception in 2000, GoldenTree Asset Management has made more than $30 billion in distressed investments, delivering a median IRR of 24 percent. The firm has launched four dedicated distressed funds, delivering top-quartile returns across all vintages on both an IRR and TVPI basis. The firm’s most recent vintage, Distressed Fund IV, held its final close in Q3 2022; it was oversubscribed, with total commitments reaching the fund’s hard-cap of $3 billion. The fund has begun deploying capital and is delivering an IRR of 40 percent-plus.

CLO Manager of the Year

1 Monroe Capital
2 Antares Capital
3 First Eagle Alternative Credit

Launched in 2006, the Monroe Capital CLO platform has $4.3 billion in AUM with 13 mid-market CLOs. The CLOs have never missed a quarterly equity distribution since the firm’s inception. The firm closed more than $1.8 billion of new issue or refinanced/reset mid-market CLOs in the last 12 months and has refinanced a portion or all tranches of four other CLOs since August 2017. In November 2022, Monroe closed its 14th CLO, a $502.5 million term debt securitisation known as Monroe Capital MML CLO XIV, LTD.

Infrastructure Debt Manager of the Year

1 Brookfield Asset Management
2 BlackRock
3 Barings

Brookfield Asset Management disclosed that it had held first closes for its fifth flagship infrastructure fund and its third infrastructure debt fund. Having reported total commitments to Brookfield Infrastructure Fund V at the end of Q2 on $20 billion, the Canadian firm revealed in its Q3 earnings that it held a $21 billion first close during the quarter, while it also achieved a $2.8 billion first close on Brookfield Infrastructure Debt Fund III. The year was Brookfield’s largest fundraising year ever across all strategies.

Real Estate Debt Manager of the Year

1 Kayne Anderson Real Estate
2 Pretium
3 Bridge Investment Group Holdings

Kayne Anderson Real Estate closed the latest iteration of its flagship debt fund on 11 May 2022 with nearly $1.9 billion in capital commitments, marking the largest debt fundraise in company history. Al Rabil, CEO of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors and co-founder and CEO of Kayne Anderson Real Estate, told affiliate title Real Estate Capital USA exclusively that the Kayne Anderson Real Estate Debt IV fund will feature a heavier tilt towards direct origination compared with prior iterations of the strategy.

Deal of the Year

1 Apollo Global Management (Energos)
2 MGG Investment Group
3 Antares Capital

In August 2022, Apollo Global Management funds formed a $2 billion, 80/20 joint venture with New Fortress Energy to establish the Energos Infrastructure platform owning and operating 11 liquefied natural gas infrastructure vessels consisting of floating storage and regasification assets, floating storage vessels and LNG carriers. Energos FSRUs are critical infrastructure for energy reliability and security. As part of the transaction, Apollo credit funds and its capital solutions business provided a comprehensive financing solution that included $1.5 billion of debt financing committed to and syndicated by the ACS platform.

Fundraising of the Year

1 Angelo Gordon
2 Crescent Capital Group
3 Cliffwater

Angelo Gordon announced the final close of the AG Credit Solutions Fund II with $3.1 billion of equity commitments, exceeding its $3 billion target in seven months from the initial to final close. The fund received significant support from current Angelo Gordon clients and new institutional and retail investors globally. The closed-end fund is the latest in a series of vehicles raised over the last three years that comprise a now $12 billion all-weather distressed and special situations platform.

Investor of the Year

1 CPP Investments
2 MetLife
3 Alaska Permanent Fund

CPP Investments added the Americas’ Investor of the Year award to its Global Investor award. Its Capital Solutions Group – part of the organisation’s Credit Investments department – is a C$29 billion ($21.8 billion; €26.7 billion) multi-strategy credit platform delivering superior risk-adjusted absolute and relative returns. The group invests directly across asset classes in sub-investment grade corporate credit and structured finance markets and employs credit structuring capabilities to invest across the entire capital structure in both public and private, primary and secondary markets in the Americas. The team provides flexible capital solutions for partners across industries and markets.

Law Firm of the Year

1 Kirkland & Ellis
2 Paul Hastings
3 Proskauer

In the last 12 months alone, Kirkland & Ellis welcomed 160 new fund formation clients, with the firm’s attorneys advising more than 600 investment funds closed and in process, exceeding $790 billion in total commitments, including 130 final closings representing $193 billion in capital commitments. The mandates covered more than 135 fund clients, including more than 50 unique credit sponsors.

Advisory and Placement Agent of the Year

1 Briarcliffe Credit Partners
2 Pinnacle Trust Partners
3 Campbell Lutyens

Briarcliffe Credit Partners, a credit-­focused placement agent, landed a coup in October when hiring former KKR senior executive Roger Li as managing director and co-head of GP advisory. Briarcliffe, which has a sole focus on private credit and targets strategies aiming for net IRRs of more than 10 percent, looks at four ‘pillars’ of corporate credit, speciality finance, real assets credit and structured credit.

Speciality Finance Lender of the Year

1 White Oak Global Advisors
2 Atalaya Capital Management
3 Crayhill Capital Management

Last year was especially productive for White Oak Global Advisors, as the firm experienced strong tailwinds in asset-based lending, with banks’ continued retreat providing more opportunity for attractive ­risk-adjusted returns in a volatile environment. WOGA deployed $1.5 billion (the vast majority of deals being directly originated), and in March, the firm’s healthcare affiliate executed its largest-ever deal – a $395 million senior credit facility to Genesis Healthcare.

Fund Financier of the Year

1 Macquarie Credit Markets
2 Crestline Investors
3 17 Capital

A record year for Macquarie Credit Markets saw 61 percent growth year-on-year, with $21 billion funded across 682 mid-market debt deals for 51 fund manager clients. Macquarie supported clients’ funding needs while much of the leverage debt capital markets were shut and many other fund lenders were reducing their lending portfolios. In this environment, Settlement Solutions helped clients optimise leverage and liquidity through a fund’s lifecycle by providing agile bridge funding to clients for various cashflow events such as seasoning, bridging to an LP capital call or longer-term facility, asset sales to third parties (including LP co-invests), and warehousing for a new fundraise.

Responsible Investor of the Year

1 Oak Hill Advisors
2 Antares Capital
3 MGG Investment Group

Oak Hill Advisors is co-leading the newly launched Global Private Debt Working Group part of Initiative Climate International, which analyses, manages and mitigates climate-related financial risk and emissions in portfolios. OHA also helped to launch the ESG Integrated Disclosure Project, alongside credit trade associations and other alternative asset managers in the private and broadly syndicated credit markets.