Ares placed first in Debtwire Par’s 2021 FYE Western Europe Direct Lender Rankings with a total of 81 deals, securing a 9.9% market share. Barings and Tikehau placed second and third with 60 and 53 deals, respectively. When including Eastern European deals, CVI joins Tikehau in third place with 53 deals in total.

In the mid-market rankings table, Eurazeo Private Debt secured pole position with a 7.4% market share from 49 deals. Tikehau and Barings placed second and third with 43 and 40 deals, respectively. The large-cap rankings saw Ares again take first place with 47 deals and a 28.5% share of the market. Pemberton and Barings came in second and third place.

Direct lending issuance is split across Europe, with regions of high activity including UKI (276 deals), France (179) and DACH (139), and regions with lower issuance comprising Benelux (81), Southern Europe (80), Eastern Europe (68) and the Nordics (67).

The volume of direct lending fundraising had an impressive rebound of activity in 2021, reaching EUR 36bn in total - just shy of the EUR 37bn secured in 2019. Despite the impressive volume, the number of funds closed has been decreasing since 2017’s total of 27 funds to just 16 in 2021, meaning average fund size has been increasing over the period.

Read our full league tables to see all rankings.