On the latest episode of the Debtwired! podcast, Engin Okaya, executive managing director at PGIM Private Capital, joins Melina Chalkia, Debtwire’s primary market reporter for North America, to discuss trends and strategies in private credit.

Okaya oversees the private placement and mezzanine activity for PGIM Private Capital's Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis and New York Global Corporate Finance offices. She is also a partner of PGIM Capital Partners, the middle-market mezzanine debt and structured equity fund management business, sponsored by PGIM Private Capital.

In this conversation, Engin explains PGIM’s approach to evaluating lending opportunities, emphasizing a structured framework that balances risk and return. She highlights the appeal of middle-market companies and discusses the growing collaboration between private credit firms and banks to diversify portfolios and enhance deal origination. The conversation also touches on sector-specific investment opportunities in private credit for 2025.

Lastly, Engin elaborates on the growing role of artificial intelligence in private credit investment decisions and highlights her view of AI as a tool to enhance, not replace, human decision-making.

#PGIM, #Private Credit, #Market Opportunities, #Artificial Intelligence

In this episode, Debtwire's Amelia Weitzman is joined by Kirstie Hutchinson and Adam Caines, both private capital partners at Macfarlanes, to discuss documentation in Europe's mid-market. Listen in to hear how much the gradual loosening of documentation is putting direct lenders on the backfoot of borrowers, whether there are any new clauses that raise alarm bells, and much more.

Jennifer Daly, head of private credit and special situations at Paul Hastings talks to Madalina Iacob, co-managing editor of Debtwire North America about trends in the private credit market and her outlook on deal environment under the Trump administration. She delves into deal structures and the latest covenant protections that private lenders are requesting.

On the latest episode of the Debtwired! podcast, Laleh Bashirrad, managing director at BNP Paribas' leveraged syndicate team, speaks to Melina Chalkia, primary markets reporter of Debtwire North America, about the latest trends in the broadly syndicated market and the 2025 outlook.

Bashirrad has over two decades of credit experience advising sponsors as well as large and midcap clients on capital structure and pricing considerations for buyouts, acquisitions, recapitalizations and refinancings.

In this podcast, Bashirrad gives an overview of the current supply and demand dynamics in the BSL market and outlines her optimistic view on demand for high yield products. While she expects the trend of refinancings to continue to dominate in the early months of 2025, she notes the building M&A pipeline could bring forth robust activity for the rest of the year. Bashirrad also highlights partnership opportunities between BSL and private credit, which are often seen as competing market players.

In this episode, Debtwire's Amelia Weitzman is joined by Nael Khatoun, an MD and portfolio manager within Oaktree’s European private credit strategy. We dive into the newly formed partnership between Oaktree Capital and Lloyds Bank, a strategic alliance aiming to redefine private credit solutions in the UK’s highly competitive market. Our guest discusses how this collaboration is already creating valuable opportunities by blending Lloyds' market expertise with Oaktree’s capital strategies, delivering faster, more flexible financing options for clients in a tightening credit environment. We also explore key market risks, including elevated interest rates, the rising influence of retail investors in private credit, and sector-specific investment trends such as life sciences and NAV finance.

#privatecredit #directlending #M&A #debt #debtwire

Debtwire's Amelia Weitzman is joined by Ambarish Dash and Will Nevin, partners within Herbert Smith Freehill’s banking and finance division.

Will is a London-based partner with over 20 years of experience in acquisition and leveraged finance, and Ambarish is also partner in the London office specializing in domestic and cross-border leveraged finance, particularly advising private equity sponsors and financial institutions on acquisition financings.

We’ll hear their views on recent trends in the financial institutions market, or ‘FIG’ as it’s referred to, with a focus on private credit terms.

#privatecredit #FIG #HerbertSmithFreehills

On this episode of the Debtwired! Podcast, Ben Thompson, Head of EMEA Leveraged Finance Capital Markets at JP Morgan, discusses the outlook for primary issuance in the European leveraged loan and high-yield bond markets with Jelena Cvejic, Debtwire Europe’s Head of Leveraged Loans.

As we are currently closing in on the second-busiest year ever in terms of gross volume in the European leveraged finance market, Thompson shares an overview of the pace and type of issuance expected in the fourth quarter.

During the conversation, we discuss the evolving demand and supply dynamics, including the flow of money across floating and fixed rate asset classes, CLO creations, yield compression, refinancing and new money activity, as well as M&A and LBO deal making.

We also touch upon the co-existence of the leveraged loan and high-yield bond markets with private credit.

#leveragedfinance #leveragedloans #highyieldbonds #CLOs #M&A #LBO

South Square Barrister Georgina Peters and Sarah Paterson, Professor of Law at LSE, discuss the court’s discretion when sanctioning a restructuring plan.

On the latest episode of the Debtwired! podcast, Mohamed Damak, Managing Director, Global Head of Islamic Finance at S&P Global Ratings, joins Debtwire CEEMEA's Mariam Meskin to delve into one of the latest developments in the sukuk market.

AAOIFI, the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions, last year published its draft of Shariah Standard No. 62, which — if adopted as proposed — would alter the credit profile of sukuk from an asset-based structure to an asset-backed one.

The standard could be adopted and formalised by as soon as next year. Its implementation could "disrupt" the global sukuk market, as Mohamed outlines in this podcast.

In his capacity as Global Head of Islamic Finance at S&P Global Ratings, Mohamed leads their cross-practice analytical thought leadership initiatives and credit rating activities in the Islamic Finance sector globally.

In this episode, Hossein Dabiri, Head of Court Reporting at Debtwire EMEA and Dawn Grocock, Senior Legal Analyst at Debtwire Europe, recap some of the key legal and court developments from the first half of the year.