The private credit market is entering a pivotal stage in its growth, with the asset class forecasted to reach $3 trillion globally by 2028. In the US, the broadening scope of private credit towards areas such as infrastructure debt and asset-based financing, the evolving role of banks and overall market dislocations and volatility continue to reshape the industry's opportunity set. Our panel of leading private credit managers will discuss their expectations - and concerns- for the year ahead.

• What are the key considerations for private credit managers in an evolving macroeconomic environment? 
• How are GPs adapting to the current private credit landscape? Are sector and asset-class specialization becoming the key value drivers?
• Are allocators expanding their strategies both geographically and by sub-strategy? Will Europe continue to become an increasingly important market?
• What is the outlook for the private credit market for the year ahead, and what are the main concerns from a GP perspective?

Continued market volatility has meant that opportunistic, special situations and distressed credit funds have seen an uptick of activity, with GPs taking advantage of dislocations to launch new funds and investors increasing allocations to the space. Our panel of experts will explore the evolving landscape for opportunistic credit and discuss where the best opportunities are emerging.

• How are current market dislocations leading to a growth of distressed and opportunistic credit activity and the need for bespoke capital solutions? 
• Where are the emerging pockets of opportunity in stressed and distressed situations?
• What do investors need to be aware of when it comes to manager selection in the opportunistic credit space? 
• What is the outlook for 2026 and beyond, and how can opportunistic and special situation managers continue to take advantage of market volatility?

Private credit is increasingly being used as a significant source of financing for the $3 trillion AI data center build-out and related infrastructure investments. According to an industry report, there have been over $200 billion of outstanding private credit loans to AI companies, with the number expected to rise to $300-$600 billion by 2030. Given the meteoric growth of the sector, it is expected that the scale of opportunities- and risks- will continue to rise. Our panel of experts will discuss the growing financing needs in the AI build-out.

• Why is private credit becoming a major source of financing for the AI data center build-out? 

• How is asset-backed finance playing an increasingly important role in data center financing? 
• What are long-term opportunities for private credit in the AI infrastructure space, such as the financing of chips and cooling systems?
• What are some concerns GPs have when it comes to financing the AI infrastructure build-out, such as inflated valuations and the risk of a bubble, and how are GPs managing risk with reward? 

2025 marked another pivotal year for the private credit secondaries market, with transaction volumes reaching $20 billion, nearly doubling that of 2024. GP-led secondaries accounted for approximately 60% of total volume, and as continued macroeconomic headwinds persist and portfolios mature, GPs are expected to continue to rely on these transactions to address liquidity issues and return capital to LPs. Our panel of secondaries experts will assess the opportunity set.

• What is prompting the surge of private credit secondaries?
• What has led to the rise of GP-led activity in the past year? 
• As more established managers set up secondary focused vehicles, will the fundraising momentum for credit secondaries continue in the year ahead?
• As the market continues to mature, are private credit secondaries entering a new phase of growth?

Private credit continues to play an increasingly important role in distressed situations, given its ability to explore more flexible and creative workout solutions outside of bankruptcy filings. Our panel will discuss the growth of restructuring activity in a maturing market and the emerging opportunity set for distressed credit strategies.

• What are the top trends surrounding private credit restructuring activity, and will we be seeing an increase of ‘key taking’ restructurings as defaults rise?  

• Why are more deals increasingly done through out-of-court change-of-control transactions? 
• Tricolor, First Brands- do these bankruptcies raise questions about vulnerabilities in the private credit market? What are some lessons learned? 
• Given the convergence of private credit and BSL, will LMEs play a larger role in the upcoming credit cycle?

Institutional investors remain cautiously optimistic towards allocating to private credit, with a larger emphasis towards seeking differentiation through looking beyond the direct lending space into other sectors as asset-based lending and infrastructure debt, diversifying their geographical exposure beyond the US, and embracing a wider range of investment vehicles beyond closed-end funds. Our panel of top institutional investors will discuss their allocation approach towards private credit and their outlook for the year ahead.

• How are institutional investors looking for differentiation in an increasingly crowded market, and which strategies are offering the best protection and risk-adjusted returns? 
• What are institutional investors looking for from managers, and how is manager selection evolving? Are LPs looking to Europe for alpha?
• The boom of private credit secondaries: how are institutional investors tapping into the opportunity set?  
• Are co-investments emerging as a key priority for institutional investors, and how else are they accessing the asset class, such as through evergreen vehicles?