Apollo

Since Apollo’s founding in 1990, our expertise in private credit has served as an integral component of the Firm’s growth and success. Our credit businesses began with management of a high-yield bond and leveraged loan portfolio and have grown significantly to cover private credit markets more broadly, including direct lending and asset-backed finance. Today, Apollo’s Credit platform accounts for $749 billion of AUM across a diverse range of credit-oriented investments, including $47 billion in third-party direct lending AUM.
 
A key differentiator of Apollo’s European platform is our ability to pivot between large corporate direct originations and upper-middle-market direct lending, targeting the most attractive relative value on a risk-adjusted basis. This first-mover advantage has translated into one of the most scaled large-cap direct lending platforms in Europe.
 
In 2025, Apollo originated €5.8 billion and deployed €4.7 billion across 26 European direct lending transactions, including 15 new originations. Apollo’s proprietary platforms and corporate capabilities enable us to originate high-quality yield, offering borrowers certainty of execution, significant hold sizes, and structuring flexibility that the syndicated markets cannot consistently match.
 
Over the past five years, the European Direct Lending Team has committed over €21.7 billion across 90 transactions, supporting various marquee transactions throughout the period.

Arcmont

Over the past 15 years, Arcmont has established itself as a leading European private credit platform, raising approximately €41bn of inevstible capital and deploying around €40bn across more than 500 transactions through multiple cycles and market environments. This scale reflects a consistently high level of sponsor engagement and origination capability, underpinned by disciplined underwriting and a focus on delivering reliable execution across the large-cap market.

Scale, discipline and repeatable origination characterised Arcmont’s activity in 2025, delivering a record year of deployment. While investing across the full size spectrum, approximately half of overall deployment was directed to the European large cap market, underlining the platform’s continued strategic focus on this market segment.
During the year, Arcmont partnered with a broad group of leading sponsors in the large‑cap market, combining repeat transactions with core relationships and selectively supporting new sponsors where execution certainty and structuring capability were decisive.

Case Study: Nexus AG (TA Associates)
Arcmont supported TA Associate’s public-to-private acquisition of Nexus AG by delivering full underwriting of a structurally complex transaction, providing execution certainty on an accelerated timetable. The bespoke financing structure enabled the sponsor to navigate a multi step take private process and secure exposure to a high quality, defensive healthcare software business.

Beyond new investments, Arcmont continued to provide strategic financing support to established large‑cap portfolio companies, funding growth initiatives, acquisitions and shareholder transactions across well‑known European platforms.

Blackstone Credit

Blackstone Credit & Insurance (“BXCI”) is one of the world’s leading credit investors, with $443 billion of AUM. Our investments span credit markets including private investment grade, asset-based lending, public investment grade and high yield, sustainable resources, infrastructure debt, collateralized loan obligations, direct lending and opportunistic credit.
 
In 2025, BXCI’s European private credit team had a record year in terms of investment in new businesses and add-on financings, which was achieved despite a year of macro uncertainty and volatility. BXCI’s capital has become what we believe to be a vital source of financing, especially for private equity sponsors. As a result, BXCI’s traditional calling cards of seeking certainty of execution and speed have enabled it to step into the financing of a wide range of companies.
 
By being active as the largest lender or as part of a club and by lending to large-cap as well as mid-cap companies, BXCI was able to achieve its record year of investment. BXCI leverages its ~60 strong team of investment professionals in Europe to help ensure that we are evaluating as broad a range of opportunities as possible across the continent with a thematic investment overlay focusing on sectors benefiting from long term, secular growth.

Goldman Sachs Private Credit

Goldman Sachs AWM is a pioneer in European direct lending and has been originating private direct mezzanine financings since 1996 and senior credit since 2008. Today, we remain one of the largest direct lenders in Europe with deployed capital totaling c.$32bn across Senior Direct Lending and Mezzanine Credit. In 2025, our team invested c.$13bn across 45+ closed and committed deals where the European Direct Lending team acted as a lead investor in 60% of those financings, taking us to the top of the leaderboard in European Large-Cap Senior Direct Lending Rankings across Debtwire, 9Fin and Octus.

Thanks to close relationships with our sponsor network, flexible capital and our robust execution capabilities, we were able to invest across a number of landmark transactions in Europe across 2025:

• ~$973m investment in Unitranche to support Vivecti’s (fka Prospitalia) acquisition of Sana GPO. The combined group will be the #1 provider of procurement, supply chain, and IT services to healthcare facilities in Germany
• ~$885m investment in HoldCo PIK to support CapVest’s €10bn acquisition of Stada, the largest LBO transaction in Europe so far this year. Stada is a leading European developer and manufacturer of generics and branded drugs
• ~$775m investment in a HoldCo PIK in Nord Anglia, supporting the LBO by EQT,  CPPIB and Neuberger Berman, which represents the UK’s largest junior financing for the year
• ~$500m investment in Unitranche + HoldCo PIK to support the refinancing of Cyncly, a leading global software provider for kitchen & bath (“K&B”) and office design
• ~$446m investment in HoldCo PIK Note note to support Ardian in their acquisition of a co-control stake in Diot-Siaci, #1 leading player in France B2B brokerage
• ~$437m investment in Unitranche + HoldCo PIK to support Bain Capital’s acquisition of Namirial, a leading Italy based Digital Transaction Management software provider and acquisition of Signaturit from PSG Equity for
• ~$396m investment in a Unitranche + HoldCo PIK to support KKR’s acquisition of Karo Healthcare, a global multi-channel consumer healthcare platform with 80+ brands selling into 90+ countries
• ~$370m investment in a HoldCo PIK backing a Sponsor’s stake in a UK headquartered global ice cream manufacturer

Significant product growth and innovation: A European private credit unlevered evergreen strategy. At the end of 2025, our open-ended GS European Credit vehicle was one of the largest of its kind in the European market.

Hayfin

Hayfin’s European large‑cap direct lending activity demonstrates the advantages of scale, local presence and disciplined execution across a fragmented continental market. As a result, last year Hayfin achieved its all-time record quarter (€2.8bn in Q4) and full year (€5.9bn) of capital deployment through its Direct Lending strategy.

Operating via a pan‑European platform, Hayfin deployed capital across complex cross‑border situations, supporting sponsors and businesses navigating slower exit markets, valuation resets and uneven capital availability. The firm’s activity reflects conviction in the structural opportunity of European private credit, particularly where banks remain constrained and local expertise is critical.

Hayfin’s approach was illustrated by numerous large‑cap transactions representative of broader European activity: the financing of Uvesco’s management‑led buyout in Spain; acquisition financing for Stago in France; and Hayfin’s lender role on the sizeable refinancing of Clarion Events, a long‑standing borrower opting again for a private credit solution.
Additionally, Hayfin welcomed Mubadala, AXA IM Prime and Samsung Life as minority shareholders, enhancing its capital base and global reach of a platform with €38bn of AUM as of Q1 2026, and a significant undrawn capital position of c.€7bn.

Hayfin continues to invest in continental Europe, appointing Marco Ferrari to lead Nordic expansion and Antonio Gomez‑Tembleque as Managing Partner in Madrid, strengthening on‑the‑ground origination and sponsor connectivity across markets.

Origination is driven primarily through established, relationship‑led primary networks across multiple European offices and sector‑specialist teams, complemented by attractively priced secondary opportunities. This approach enables Hayfin to build a diversified portfolio of asset‑backed and cash‑generative European businesses while maintaining limited exposure to software credits most exposed to AI disruption. As investor preferences continue shifting towards conservative, locked‑up institutional capital structures, Hayfin’s model resonates. Hayfin distinguished itself by combining scale, discipline and local expertise across Europe’s large‑cap market.

KKR

KKR is a leading, large-scale direct lender in Europe. We believe that our origination platform is best in class, built upon our close relationships with top-tier sponsors and advisers, alongside our incumbency as lender to hundreds of companies.

We are focused on upper middle-market to large cap borrowers (with EBITDA of €50 million and above) in defensive, resilient sectors. Our strategy targets scaled, proven businesses with strong fundamentals, high revenue visibility, and robust cash flow conversion.

Our team of seasoned credit specialists has deep experience investing across the capital structure and through market cycles. Our rigorous underwriting, coupled with a hands-on, active approach to portfolio management, allows us to be both highly selective and decisive, delivering with the speed and flexibility required by today’s leading sponsors and borrowers.

In 2025, our Senior Direct Lending platform signed 28 senior debt investments, executing transactions within accelerated timelines. Across our last three European Direct Lending vintages, we have achieved zero losses or defaults, underscoring the strength of our discipline.

A standout transaction was the £1.3bn-equivalent unitranche financing for Constellation Automotive, for which KKR provided the sole commitment. Following a downgrade and near-term liquidity pressure, the company required a fast, certain refinancing, delivered through KKR’s sole underwriting. We structured a highly flexible solution, including a 60-day take-out option and a bridge to support the equity injection, features rarely seen at this scale.

KKR was also the lead provider of debt financing supporting CVC’s take-private of Hargreaves Lansdown, the leading UK direct-to-consumer investment platform. KKR Credit committed £750 million as lead investor in the £1,750 million unitranche facility as part of the £5.4 billion transaction, providing scale and certainty to support a significant UK public-to-private transaction.

These transactions exemplify KKR’s ability to deliver creative, large-scale solutions to complex situations.

SMBC Private Markets

SMBC Private Credit is a core part of the bank’s unique leverage finance eco-system with an ability to provide comprehensive sole solutions including; SSRCF, term loans, derivatives and underwriting capability that is a true differentiator in the European market.

Launching in 2017 with a leadership team that has been working together for 15yrs+, it continues to grow and expand with additional SMBC Group and partnership sleaves of capital added in the last 18 months and 31 transactions closed over calendar 2025, SMBC is now ranking firmly in the top 10 European private credit league tables for the second year running. SMBC has delivered not only capital solutions for our clients, but also consistency, certainty of execution and support during the life of the facilities.

What sets SMBC apart?

• One stop solution – SMBC can provide not only the unitranche debt, but also the SS RCF and the hedging, reducing deal complexity and number of parties sponsors are dealing with.
• Ability to underwrite – whilst being able to commit up to $400m to a single transaction, SMBC can underwrite beyond this, facilitating smoother execution for clients.
• Flexible solutions – unlike others, the private credit team sits alongside the broadly syndicated loans team, allowing SMBC to offer BSL and private credit solutions from one deal team.
• Execution capabilities – team can execute under tight timelines (NMi) and support customers in complex asks such as take privates (Norva24) or carve outs (S&W).

Case Study: TrackUnit Case Study

SMBC Group and partners, as existing lenders, jointly structured, arranged and anchored the transaction for Goldman Sachs Alternatives acquisition of a co-control stake in TrackUnit from Hg. SMBC Group also  offered a fully approved underwrite for the remainder of the facilities needed to support the acquisition. SMBC has also provided a range of ancillary services.