David Brooke
London, New York
Articles by David Brooke
What is Silver Lake’s play with EA? Here’s what the deck says
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Private credit preps $9bn Hologic financing to rival BSL offering for LBO
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BDCs look to adjust dividends in wake of Fed cuts
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The Unicrunch - A time for the ABF market to take stock
It’s deceptive, but asset-backed finance (ABF) is a somewhat simple market. There are the originators and the financiers. Those originators underwrite thousands of loans to people like you and me, whether to provide us with a mortgage or a credit card, and those who underwrite and make investments in those who underwrite thousands of loans to people like you me…ok, perhaps not so simple after all. No doubt it is a radiant market, but it is one that has suddenly gotten a little less colorful.
Banks line up BradyPlus and ImperialDade merger financing
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Apollo in talks to lead $12bn private debt package for Musk’s xAI
Apollo is in talks to lead an approximate $12bn private debt financing to support artificial intelligence firm xAI’s expansion plans, according to 9fin sources. The potential deal being discussed would include around $10bn of private loans and an approximate $2bn revolver, sources said. Other private credit firms are also engaged with the company on the debt package, sources noted. A deal is not yet finalized and there is still room for banks to participate, a source close added.
Private credit lenders back Baker Tilly’s Moss Adams merger with $1.5bn financing (9fin)
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Antares trims capital markets team amid dealmaking slump
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Dun & Bradstreet loan docs chart middle ground between PC and BSL
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Ares floats pricing on $5bn loan for Dun & Bradstreet buyout by Clearlake
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Validity pivots to private credit as volatility hits
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The Unicrunch - It wasn’t always like this
The Unicrunch is our US private credit newsletter, in which we break down everything from unitranches to ABL. Sign up for the inside track on this fast-growing market. With spreads grinding tighter and defaults picking up, the “golden age” rhetoric around private credit is starting to feel a little long in the tooth.
X debt sale highlights scorching state of the loan market
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The Unicrunch - Serving up a piping hot cup of private credit
The Unicrunch is our US private credit newsletter, in which we break down everything from unitranches to ABL. Sign up for the inside track on this fast-growing market. Cast your mind back to 2017 — Donald Trump’s first year in office as US president. The New York Times and New Yorker had published Pulitzer prize-winning exposés on Harvey Weinstein, kickstarting the #MeToo movement and Black Lives Matter protests were hitting the NFL. Woke was added to the Oxford English Dictionary that year.
The Unicrunch - Insurance interest and restructurings abound
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The Unicrunch - Stocking up on private credit
The Unicrunch is our US private credit newsletter, in which we break down everything from unitranches to ABL. Sign up for the inside track on this fast-growing market. There are certain holiday classics that could not be made today. For every Arnold Schwarzenegger trying to buy a Turbo Man, there is Amazon. For every jittery bank customer, there is online banking — and for every child left behind at home or an airport there are smartphones to keep parents connected.
The Unicrunch - BlackRock’s holiday shopping, LP diet trends, and downwardly mobile lenders
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The Unicrunch - Companies pain, but little private credit pleasure
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Pure Fishing nets new funding from private credit lenders
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Astorg pushes the button on Anaqua sale
News and Analysis Synne Johnsson +David Brooke + 1 more 4 September 2024•2 min read Private equity firm Astorg has appointed Jefferies and Arma Partners to sell IP software firm Anaqua, 9fin sources said. The company posted roughly $80m in 2023 EBITDA, the sources said. Astorg bought Anaqua in 2019 from Insight Venture Partners, through its Astorg VII fund. Read all our public content for free Sign up for our newsletter to read this article now We won't spam. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Private credit-backed Pluralsight looks to try on a J. Crew-style LME
Vista Equity-backed Pluralsight is exploring a transaction in which it would move a material IP asset to a non-guarantor subsidiary outside its restricted group — and then raise new debt on the asset, according to sources.
Five takeaways from DealCatalyst
Market Wrap Peter Benson +David Brooke 13 May 2024•4 min read Hola! It’s David and Peter back from an eventful two days in the sunshine state where we attended the DealCatalyst direct lending and middle market finance event. We schmoozed with industry players and oversaw a panel each on the Friday morning — all fueled by caffeine and prosecco.
The Unicrunch - Methinks the lender doth flex too much
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MUFG circles back to direct lending assets it sold to US Bank
News and Analysis Shubham Saharan +David Brooke + 1 more 12 February 2024•5 min read There’s a lot of talk about asset-based finance being the next big frontier for private credit lenders.
The Unicrunch - Give fees a chance, water in the desert
Money: you never have enough, and you’re always spending too much. Many people would probably argue that private credit funds have more than enough money right now, but the second part of the above statement might hold true for some of their LPs. As we reported earlier this week, the Stanislaus County Employees’ Retirement Association (StanCERA) paid out a princely sum of $12m to its private credit managers from July 2020 to September last year — almost 20% of the investor’s total fee outlay.
The Unicrunch - Let’s get it on in public
Market Wrap David Brooke 26 January 2024•4 min read Even in our hyper-technologized world, real-world experiences (or ‘IRL’ as the kids say) still matter. Ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange is one such experience that many founders and CEOs dream about. Sure, the crowd on the exchange floor is mostly computers these days, and Wall Street is more historic hotspot than center of modern finance — but that balcony and that bell still have symbolic power.
The Unicrunch - All in all there are less bricks in the maturity wall
Market Wrap David Brooke 18 January 2024•4 min read Last year was very much defined as the big M&A slump. An historically unprecedented rise in the federal funds rate halted a lot of deal activity. Simply put, debt was just too expensive to make buyouts work. So naturally you’d expect a pile up of private equity portfolio companies coming dangerously close to debt maturities, whether in 2024 or 2025.
KKR turns to banks for Cotiviti underwrite amid repricing wave
News and Analysis David Brooke +Will Caiger-Smith 11 January 2024•3 min read KKR is leaning towards banks to provide the financing for its proposed acquisition of a 50% stake in Cotiviti, partly thanks to a favorable climate for primary leveraged loan issuance which has helped recent deals price tighter, according to 9fin sources. The private equity firm has run a dual track process, taking proposals from banks and direct lenders to provide roughly $5bn of debt to fund the deal.
The Unicrunch - Keeping it in house
Market Wrap David Brooke 4 January 2024•3 min read Have some sympathy for asset managers. Their private credit arms are required to compete for the best assets; their private equity arms are under pressure to sell their assets to fund payouts to LPs when buyers want bargain prices. Today is all about how the giants of the financial industry find creative ways to circumvent these pressures. Read all our public content for free Sign up for our newsletter to read this article now We won't spam.
The Unicrunch - Cotiviti creativity, calling shots
Market Wrap David Brooke +Bill Weisbrod 15 December 2023•5 min read This article is part of our new service, 9fin Private Credit, which will soon require a separate subscription to view. For more info on this product and the accompanying database, contact subscriptions@9fin.com. Before private credit reached its mainstream status, the joke was always that it was there for the deals that the banks didn’t want to do.
9Questions - Alex Popov, Carlyle - Private credit’s Hollywood moment
9Questions is our Q&A series featuring key decision-makers in the corporate credit markets — get in touch if you know who we should be talking to! Perhaps you heard last week that it’s official — it’s Taylor Swift’s world and we’re all just living in it. Whatever her cultural impact, her tours, records, and films are an economy unto itself — and this thriving ecosystem shows how much wider the entertainment and sports sectors have grown in the past few years.
Cotiviti - Credit rally puts banks in pole position to win financing mandate
News and Analysis David Brooke +Shubham Saharan + 1 more 14 December 2023•3 min read This article is part of our new service, 9fin Private Credit, which will soon require a separate subscription to view. For more info on this product and the accompanying database, contact subscriptions@9fin.com.
The Unicrunch - Credit v equity, talking HVAC
Market Wrap David Brooke 8 December 2023•4 min read This article is part of our new service, 9fin Private Credit, which will soon require a separate subscription to view. For more info on this product and the accompanying database, contact subscriptions@9fin.com Perhaps it’s now time to *gasp* think about the election. Primaries kick off next month and if you’re looking 12 months ahead (as any good investor should) there will (hopefully) be a President elected.
The Unicrunch - Neither a buyer nor a lender be
Market Wrap David Brooke 30 November 2023•4 min read This article is part of our new service, 9fin Private Credit. If you're interested in a free trial, contact subscriptions@9fin.com. Perhaps you may have heard, but there is an ongoing slump in the M&A markets. Sellers don’t want to part with assets at the price that most buyers are willing to pay, since financing costs don’t line up with pre-2022 valuations.
The Unicrunch - Spread the holiday cheer
Market Wrap David Brooke 22 November 2023•3 min read We entered 2023 with the pendulum firmly on private credit lenders’ side. The invasion of Ukraine and the Fed kicking off its policy of hiking rates early last year flipped a script that had favored sponsors for years — suddenly, lenders were in charge as a new backdrop of macro-economic volatility overshadowed deal making.
The Unicrunch - Monopoly money
Market Wrap David Brooke 16 November 2023•4 min read This article is part of our new service, 9fin Private Credit. If you're interested in a free trial, contact subscriptions@9fin.com. Spend enough time in credit, and the same names (and assorted dramas that go with them) come around again and again, like one long Scooby Doo cartoon.
The Unicrunch - Repressing the stress
Market Wrap David Brooke 9 November 2023•4 min read The Unicrunch is our US private credit newsletter, in which we break down everything from unitranches to ABL lending. Sign up for the inside track on this fast-growing market. Read all our public content for free Sign up for our newsletter to read this article now We won't spam. You can unsubscribe at any time. Recently Published What are you waiting for?
The Unicrunch - Greetings from the asset-backed fund-shine state
Market Wrap David Brooke 24 October 2023•5 min read This article is part of our new service, 9fin Private Credit. If you're interested in a free trial, contact subscriptions@9fin.com There are few things as disorientating as a temporary return to the Summer in late October. Cocktails in 80-degree Miami weather will fluster you in more ways than one! But I’ve just returned from ABS East, and if you were there you may have been able to catch a panel that I moderated on private credit dealmaking.
Fortress seeks up to $8bn for new credit opps fund
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The Unicrunch - NAV lending takes the spotlight
Market Wrap David Brooke 17 October 2023•4 min read This article is part of our new service, 9fin Private Credit. If you're interested in a free trial, contact subscriptions@9fin.com Cast your mind back to 2017. Many had discovered for the first time what subscription lines were and a flurry of criticism ensued. There was an alarm about whether LPs understood what they did, the juicing of IRRs to make funds look good, as well as the issue of adding a further layer of leverage.
The Unicrunch - Audio splendor gives KKR a victory lap
Market Wrap David Brooke 19 September 2023•4 min read This article is part of our forthcoming service, 9fin Private Credit. If you're interested in a free trial, contact subscriptions@9fin.com It can be difficult to say goodbye. KKR’s decision to switch from being equity to debt provider in the buyout of RBmedia is an interesting play.
RBmedia - KKR leads debt financing for company it just sold
News and Analysis David Brooke +Will Caiger-Smith + 1 more 19 September 2023•3 min read KKR has provided debt financing for the acquisition of RBmedia by Francisco Partners and HIG Capital, which are buying the audiobook publishing company from…KKR. Read all our public content for free Sign up for our newsletter to read this article now We won't spam. You can unsubscribe at any time. Recently Published What are you waiting for?
The Unicrunch - Too big to nail
Market Wrap David Brooke 6 September 2023•6 min read This article is part of our forthcoming service, 9fin Private Credit. Content from this new service is currently available as a preview to all 9fin Premium subscribers, but will soon require a subscription to 9fin Private Credit to view.
The Unicrunch - Can’t shift Swift, Season and Hell
Market Wrap David Brooke 29 August 2023•4 min read This article is part of our forthcoming service, 9fin Private Credit. Content from this new service is currently available as a preview to all 9fin Premium subscribers, but will soon require a subscription to 9fin Private Credit to view. For more info on this product and the accompanying database, contact subscriptions@9fin.com Read all our public content for free Sign up for our newsletter to read this article now We won't spam.
The Unicrunch - Labor Day liftoff, improving with age, whisky business
Market Wrap David Brooke 22 August 2023•4 min read This article is part of our forthcoming service, 9fin Private Credit. Content from this new service is currently available as a preview to all 9fin Premium subscribers, but will soon require a subscription to 9fin Private Credit to view. For more info on this product and the accompanying database, contact subscriptions@9fin.com Read all our public content for free Sign up for our newsletter to read this article now We won't spam.
The Unicrunch - Private credit’s bumpy ESG ride
Market Wrap David Brooke 15 August 2023•4 min read This article is part of our forthcoming service, 9fin Private Credit. Content from this new service is currently available as a preview to all 9fin Premium subscribers, but will soon require a subscription to 9fin Private Credit to view. For more info on this product and the accompanying database, contact subscriptions@9fin.com Read all our public content for free Sign up for our newsletter to read this article now We won't spam.
The Unicrunch - Lend It Like Beckham
This article is part of our forthcoming service, 9fin Private Credit. Content from this new service is currently available as a preview to all 9fin Premium subscribers, but will soon require a subscription to 9fin Private Credit to view. For more info on this product and the accompanying database, contact subscriptions@9fin.com Soccer (or football as it’s called in my homeland) never really stops.
The Unicrunch - Bargain hunting in the dog days, $10bn is the magic number
This article is part of our forthcoming service, 9fin Private Credit. Content from this new service is currently available as a preview to all 9fin Premium subscribers, but will soon require a subscription to 9fin Private Credit to view. For more info on this product and the accompanying database, contact subscriptions@9fin.com
Direct lenders back Worldwide Clinical buyout at mid-6x leverage
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New Relic gets $2bn-plus private credit loan to fund LBO
Private equity firms TPG and Francisco Partners have turned to direct lenders to fund their acquisition of publicly traded software company New Relic, according to 9fin sources. The $6.5bn buyout, which was confirmed in a press release today, comes amid a wave of take-private transactions by private equity sponsors — and intense competition between banks and private credit firms over who gets to finance them.
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