Private Debt Intelligence – 10/2/2017

Asia-Focused Private Debt Fundraising Picks Up in Q3 2017

Private debt fundraising saw continued momentum in Q3 2017, with 25 funds reaching a final close and securing a total of $20bn in investor commitments. This is largely on par with fundraising activity seen in Q2 when 32 funds closed and raised a little under $20bn. The first three quarters of 2017 have seen a total of 90 funds close, totalling an aggregate $65bn in capital.

 Although this is an increase from the first three quarters of 2016, when 99 funds secured $44bn, due to record capital totals registered in Q4 2016, 2017 looks on track to reach, rather than spike above, fundraising levels of the previous year.

North America-focused private debt funds represented the majority of fundraising activity this quarter. While 13 North America-focused funds closed this quarter and secured an aggregate $11bn, seven Europe-focused funds raised $3.5bn. Although a smaller proportion of Asia-focused private debt funds closed, aggregate capital raised by Asia-focused funds surpassed the amount raised by Europe-focused funds.

In fact, Q3 marks a record quarterly high for Asia-focused fundraising, with four funds reaching a final close, raising an aggregate $5.2bn. This is a distinct increase from last quarter which only saw two funds close and did not see any significant amount of aggregate capital, as well as an increase from Q1 2017, which saw less than half a billion dollars in capital raised. The first three quarters of 2017 have already seen a higher level of Asia-focused private debt fundraising activity than all of 2016. With Q3 seeing the highest amount of capital raised in a quarter in the past five years, 2017 is on course to see near-record levels of capital raised for the region by the end of the year.