Having shot to prominence in the early part of this decade, have sustainability-linked loans (or SLLs) become an enduring part of the private credit landscape? Or have they quietly gone out of fashion?

In this special edition of the podcast, co-hosted with PEI Group affiliate publication New Private Markets, we seek to chart the rise of sustainability-linked loans and assess how they are being used today.

To recap: these loans feature a margin ratchet whereby the borrower’s performance against certain sustainability targets can result in a lower interest rate in the case of outperformance, or an increase in the case of underperformance.

To help us assess the situation, we enlisted Nishan Srinivasan, head of origination and partner at Ambienta Credit. Since its inception in 2007, Ambienta has invested in companies operating in the realms of environmental and resource efficiency. Srinivasan spent 22 years at Credit Suisse, latterly as global co-head of leverage finance origination. He joined Ambienta in 2023 to help launch its credit platform.

In the early days of SLLs it was not uncommon to see ratchets of 5 basis points relating to sustainability goals that were easily achievable, says Srinivasan. “Typically this was, dare I say, window dressing,” he said. “Quite de minimis in the context of the cost of the loan”.

Fast forward to today and the targets are more ambitious, the discounts more meaningful – as much as 40bps – and there is more frequently a margin uplift in the event of failure.

In this episode, we examine some headline-grabbing company failures such as First Brands, Tricolor and Carriox – and ponder what lessons and insights there might be for the private debt asset class.

While private debt exposure may have been relatively limited in these instances, can the asset class be confident that it has its own house in order? Jiri Krol of the Alternative Investment Management Association and Alternative Credit Council acknowledges there is stress in the system – but believes that stress may have already peaked and that, in general, private debt has once again demonstrated its resilience in tough times.

But Matthias Kirchgaessner of Plexus Research is not convinced that private debt is immune from concerns around troubled companies, with fierce competition among lenders meaning that some due diligence shortcuts may have been taken.

This episode is sponsored by Rithm Capital

Asset-based finance is rapidly evolving within the world of private credit, offering investors a differentiated source of risk-adjusted returns. With the market valued at over $20 trillion, it underscores the vast scale and growing importance of this segment as investors seek alternative opportunities amid shifting economic conditions.

In this episode, we speak to Michael Nierenberg, CEO of Rithm Capital, to discuss why asset-based finance is becoming more popular with investors. We analyse the opportunities ABF brings, while also exploring how managers are differentiating themselves in a competitive market.

This episode is sponsored by Nuveen

The private debt industry continues to go from strength to strength, with several key segments of the market gaining further traction with institutional investors as they seek out strong returns in an uncertain macroeconomic environment.

Both geography and strategy will be crucial to attract LPs in the coming months and years - Europe and the US each have significant market factors at play that will determine the trajectory and rate of private credit growth across both markets, while the infrastructure-focused investment-grade space is seeing strong dealflow despite volatility.

In this episode, we speak to Randy Schwimmer, vice chairman and chief investment strategist at Churchill Asset Management; Laura Parrott, a senior managing director and head of the private fixed income group at Nuveen; and Michael Massarano, a partner and deputy CIO of Arcmont Asset Management, to find out more about the dynamics driving private debt activity across these three key segments.

This episode is sponsored by Arrow Global

To be a successful player in the distressed lending market, one needs to understand the importance of timing. The current macroeconomic environment offers plenty of opportunities for distressed lenders looking to assist businesses struggling with market dislocation, bank retrenchment and policy uncertainty. However, lenders that look to take a more opportunistic approach to the strategy may not be able to deliver the kinds of returns sought by increasingly sophisticated investors.

In this episode, we speak with Zach Lewy, founder, CEO, and chief investment officer of Arrow Global, to discuss the importance of taking a long-term view on potential targets and the opportunities and risks associated with the strategy.

We also explore why default rates are no longer truly indicative of distress in the market and why lenders who have pan-European footprints are particularly well-placed to benefit from market dislocation.

Philip Sherrill, Blackstone's global head of insurance at the company's credit and insurance unit, joined to talk about why it chooses a "capital-light" approach to insurance investing. In addition, he expands on the growing homogenisation of how insurance investors access private credit, and how the policies they're underwriting influence that – across the globe.

Oaktree Capital Management’s announcement in early February that its Opportunities Fund XII had raised $16 billion – inclusive of co-investments and affiliated investment vehicles – represented the largest fundraise for an opportunistic/distressed debt fund to date.

Brook Hinchman and Jared Parker – both managing directors and co-heads of North America for Oaktree’s Global Opportunities strategy, joined The Private Debt Investor Podcast to discuss the strategy and how a mixture of factors including tariffs, liability management exercises and the path forward for interest rates are influencing decision making as the fund’s investment phase is in full swing.

This episode first appeared on Secondaries Investor's Second Thoughts podcast, which you can subscribe to by clicking here, or searching wherever you listen to podcasts.

Private credit secondaries has the potential to surpass private equity in deal volume over the longer term as more secondaries investors pursue yield and diversification amid market volatility.

Over the past year, several billion-dollar-plus deals have emerged in the credit secondaries space, including Coller Capital's recent acquisition of a $1.6 billion portfolio from American National and TPG Angelo Gordon's $1.5 billion continuation fund. Firms like Coller, Pantheon, Apollo Global Management and Ares Management have also launched dedicated credit secondaries strategies.

In this episode, Michael Schad, head of secondaries at Coller Capital, and Gerald Cooper, global co-head of secondaries advisory at Campbell Lutyens, speak with Secondaries Investor Americas correspondent Hannah Zhang about the evolution of the private credit secondaries market and where the next opportunities may emerge.

"Most of the asset managers are sitting on tens of billions of NAV. So it lends itself to a secondary opportunity that is inevitably going to continue to grow and be of scale," Cooper said in the podcast. "I think as we look five to 10 years down the road, we are hopeful that we are going to see more specialised pockets of capital come into the space."