Voting Closed

To find out who won, book a table at the British Private Equity Party Awards 2025 on Tuesday, 30 September at The Brewrey, London

Arcmont

Arcmont Asset Management, one of the largest private credit firms in Europe, has been a historic pioneer in the UK direct lending landscape and has remained an active lender to the private equity industry, with the UK being our largest lending market since inception. Arcmont has provided financing to the UK market for over a decade, which remains a key focus and cornerstone of the firm’s success, leveraging relationships with leading GPs in the region. Arcmont has been actively facilitating PE activity in the UK since inception, having deployed circa a third of our total capital raised in this jurisdiction over the last 13 years.

During the last-twelve-months and thanks to our successful fundraising efforts, we have had the opportunity to continue supporting midlarge UK corporates; which has been reflected on our consistently active pipeline, year-to-date Arcmont’s pipeline has seen a 21.6% increase with respect to the same period in 2024. To date Arcmont has continued to demonstrate its market strength through its consistently robust pipeline. Increasing over the last year by 58.6% the capital committed to high quality business across Western Europe compared to the previous twelve months. The increase in commitments has been followed by an 11% increase in the number of sponsors which are supported by Arcmont.

Ares Management

Ares Management (“Ares”) believes its European Direct Lending (“EDL”) strategy’s scaled capital, together with its extensive 18-year+ track record, makes Ares a reliable, supportive and innovative financing partner. We believe our ability to structure large and tailored commitments, including flexible follow-on capital, offers significant differentiation. As evidenced by the investment team’s extensive network of longstanding relationships developed over decades, Ares EDL believes that borrowers recognize the value of this deliverability from a long-term cycle-tested partner, particularly during times of market dislocation and macroeconomic uncertainty.

As of March 31, 2025, the Investment Team of ~95 professionals (the “team”), of which over half are based in London, had reviewed ~12,000 opportunities and closed 394 primary transactions (~3% completion rate) since inception. Over 200 of these investments since the inception of the EDL strategy in 2007 have been in UK-headquartered companies, representing ~€46.9 billion of total commitments. Ares EDL believes that the wealth of historical information across all opportunities reviewed since inception represents a meaningful differentiation in the marketplace, as does the team’s focus on maintaining discipline in its investments decisions and remaining highly selective.

Blackstone Credit

2024/25 was a record year for Blackstone Credit and Insurance in the UK with 17 completed deals totalling >£3.5bn of aggregate new commitments.

These investments continued BXCI’s track record of supporting economic activity across the breadth of the UK, focusing on sectors benefitting from long term secular growth. Employees of new Blackstone UK portfolio companies can be found installing solar panels in Cardiff, developing educational software in Sheffield, and delivering internet connectivity in Inverness.

The 17 UK deals were completed together with 13 different sponsors and showcased BXCI’s traditional calling cards of scale, speed and certainty of execution in addition to the team’s trusted partner status in a wide variety of scenarios. Notable examples included Lomond, where, as the company has grown its EBITDA from £11M to £45M of EBITDA, BXCI's financing has grown alongside it to lead a £300M transaction, and Davies, where the BXCI optimised the company's balance sheet ahead of its next stage of growth.

BXCI strives to be a value-add partner as well as a capital provider, with portfolio companies benefitting from the firm’s Value Creation Programme, leveraging the Blackstone platform’s scale, network and expertise. In 2024, the Value Creation team supported UK portfolio companies in identifying >£4m in cost savings and >£5m of revenue generation opportunities.

Bridgepoint Credit

Bridgepoint Credit is one of Europe’s most experienced credit managers, with c.€24bn invested across more than 350 companies since 2008. The platform currently manages over €14bn+ AUM across three complementary corporate credit strategies: Direct Lending, Credit Opportunities and Syndicated Debt. Its pan-European model provides deep sector insights, cross-strategy collaboration, and diversified exposure across the risk/reward spectrum.

Bridgepoint Direct Lending ("BDL") is its largest strategy (€8bn+ AUM). It provides predominantly senior-secured financing to sponsor-backed middle market companies with EBITDA typically between €10–75m. Focused on downside protection and resilient income, the strategy typically acts as sole or lead lender, enabling greater influence and control, certainty of execution, and bespoke structuring.

In the period, Bridgepoint’s BDL strategy was an active lender across the UK and Europe and invested in 16 new companies with significant add-on volume related to existing investments. UK investment highlights include McGill and Partners, JSM Group and Inspired Education, all executed through longstanding relationships with leading private equity sponsors.

Bridgepoint’s approach – spanning 8 offices and a 70+ team – delivers differentiated origination, rigorous DD via the Bridgepoint Knowledge Bank, and active portfolio monitoring and risk management processes. This disciplined model has resulted in zero realised losses across all BDL vintages.

Permira Credit

Permira Credit deserves to win the Lender of the Year award because it has demonstrated strong deployment, platform breadth and sponsor alignment, establishing itself as a top-tier private lender in the UK. During the qualifying period, its Direct Lending funds committed €1.6bn across 24 transactions, including three Strategic Opportunities investments. On the liquid side, it priced a record four CLOs – including Menlo CLO II and Providus CLO XII – underscoring best-in-class performance in a turbulent market.

Permira Credit’s differentiated platform model is exemplified by its £98m financing for Smith & Williamson, a UK-based accounting and advisory firm. The deal showcased deep collaboration across the Permira platform, drawing on private equity insights gained through Permira’s private equity investment in Evelyn Partners, to navigate carve-out complexities and sector dynamics.

SMBC Private Credit

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

Launching in 2017 with a leadership team that has been working together for 15yrs+, it continues to grow and expand with more than 60 transactions closed since inception and 23 over calendar 2024, SMBC is now ranking firmly in the top 10 European private credit league tables. 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. IRIS and Civica are recent examples.
• Execution capabilities – team can execute under tight timelines (Zellis preempt) and support customers in complex asks such as carve outs (WGSN, S&W) or primary buyouts (Grant Thornton UK).

Voting Closed

To find out who won, book a table at the British Private Equity Party Awards 2025 on Tuesday, 30 September at The Brewrey, London