Carlyle Raises $5.7 Billion for Opportunistic Credit Fund
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(Bloomberg) -- Carlyle Group Inc. raised $5.7 billion for its latest flagship credit fund, as it seeks to catch up with rivals in the fast-growing business.
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The alternative asset manager hoped to gather as much as $6.5 billion when it began raising money in 2023, lengthening its campaign by several months to accommodate certain investors.
Still, the haul marks its biggest-ever credit pool, exceeding the roughly $4.6 billion raised for the prior vintage in 2022. Once leverage is included, the firm will have $7.1 billion — and its total purchasing power will grow after it adds accounts it manages separately for some clients.
Alex Popov, who heads private credit at Carlyle, said the fund is among the largest of its kind for opportunistic financing, which involves strategies that combine debt and equity-like elements.
“It’s been a complicated fundraising market,” he said. “It gives us a real capital base just at the right time in the capital markets to invest.”
At its core, Carlyle remains a private equity firm. Its buyout and PE arm drive a substantial portion of management fees.
That contrasts with rivals such as Ares Management Corp., which is chiefly a nonbank lender. Washington-based Carlyle took longer than peers to solidify a strategy around its credit business, coming up with its latest growth plan about seven years ago.
The firm is pushing to get bigger in credit, particularly in asset-backed lending.
Popov, 49, launched the credit opportunities platform in 2017 shortly after joining Carlyle from HPS Investment Partners. Its goal is to provide highly structured financings and equity-like returns.
Unlike another Carlyle direct-lending business that focuses on companies backed by private equity, Popov’s 40-person credit-opportunities investment team targets family businesses and founder-led firms. They may be seeking alternatives to bank debt to acquire businesses or buy out shareholders.
Last year, that group provided an $800 million debt facility underpinned by intellectual property rights from TV show South Park and other endeavors that allowed creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker to get some liquidity. This year, it led a more than €1 billion ($1.05 billion) financing for a German prosthetics maker. The team also did a structured-equity deal involving the Seattle Reign of the National Women’s Soccer League.