Content hub
Explore private capital market trends, in-depth research from leading industry partners, expert interviews, live webinars, and educational videos — all in one place.
Featured Article
Private Credit Defaults 101: Beyond the Noise
Like any good school year, this series went by fast. But as class comes to an end, there’s one theme that’s been top of mind here at The Lead: “noise.”
|
October 6, 2026 
Private Credit – The Final Reckoning (Last of a Series)
Markets happen when you’re making other plans. This was true again last week as confrontation with Iran, instead of caving…
Unitranche spreads hover around recent market lows
The most recent quarter was marked by intense competition among direct lenders and lower than hope for deal flow. In…
Second-Busiest Day of Leveraged Loan Launches Brings Wave of Repricings
Click here to access Bloomberg’s US Leveraged Finance Chartbook Following the most active single day of 2025 and the second…
Middle Market Deal Terms at a Glance - July 2025
Source: SPP Capital Partners Contact: Stefan Shaffersshaffer@sppcapital.com
Fitch Ratings Completes Peer Reviewof 12 US BDCs
Fitch Ratings has completed a peer review of 12 U.S. business development companies (BDCs). Fitch has affirmed the Long-Term Issuer…
Carveouts/divestitures as a share of all PE buyouts by quarter
Download PitchBook’s Report here. Carve-out transactions are running at 10.6% of all buyout deals in 2025, which is comfortably above the five-year average…
Average Minimum Day-One Capped Basket Capacity, YoY
(Past performance is no guarantee of future results.)
The Force Awakens – Churchill 2Q Private Equity Survey (Part Two)
In response to our Reflections on Wimbledon two weeks ago, a long-time Lead Left reader informed us that the famed…
Exit Ramp
The number of PE exits slumped 1Q after last year’s steady improvement. Source: Preqin Pro
Private Credit – The Final Reckoning (Third of a Series)
We spoke recently to a C-suite executive of a global specialty chemicals company about how tariffs are affecting his business.…
Private Credit, Public Debate
Richard Hunter, Chief Risk Officer at Fitch Ratings, recently published an op-ed sharing his insights on private credit. He addressed…
2Q25 Total US direct lending LBO volume down over 47% quarter over quarter
Talk of tariffs, inflation fears and anticipation of a congressional show down over the Trump administration’s “big, beautiful bill” contributed…
Leveraged Loan Launches Accelerate in July
Click here to access Bloomberg’s US Leveraged Finance Chartbook After launching over $33bn into the broadly syndicated US leveraged loan…
Percentage of Loans with Uncapped Synergies & Cost Savings EBITDA Addbacks
(Past performance is no guarantee of future results.)
US PE fundraising activity
Download PitchBook’s Report here. PE fundraising has landed at a lower level than in 2024, which was already a worse year…
The Force Awakens – Churchill 2Q Private Equity Survey (Conclusion)
Our recent survey of 164 private equity executives revealed improved confidence in both the M&A environment over the next twelve…