Pantheon eyes global LPs with latest credit secondaries raise

Pantheon has held final close on a pair of credit secondaries funds, building on its position as an early mover in the market.

The London-based alternatives manager has raised $834 million for Pantheon Senior Debt II, which targets senior debt investments on a secondary basis, according to a statement. The fund was targeting $500 million.

This was Pantheon’s first senior debt secondaries aimed at a global investor base, according to a source familiar with the fundraise. It was raised as a successor to PSD I, which was aimed solely at investors in the DACH region and closed in 2020 on €250 million.

Pantheon closed another DACH-focused secondaries fund this week, collecting €510 million for the second generation of its regional strategy, Secondaries Investor understands.

Pantheon now has $2.4 billion of capital dedicated to private debt secondaries across its senior debt funds as well as an opportunistic credit programme. It has $4.7 billion in total credit assets under management, including primary- and co-investment capital.

“We see increasing investor interest in credit secondaries due to the benefits of highly invested portfolios, high levels of diversification across company, industry, strategy and vintage year, attractive credit metrics, and shorter durations than what they might experience with other private credit investment alternatives,” said Pantheon global head of private debt Rick Jain in the statement.

Pantheon estimated that global private credit secondaries dealflow reached $18.4 billion in 2021, having barely registered only a few years ago.

Pantheon was an early mover in credit secondaries, bringing in Rick Jain from Star Mountain Capital to lead the business in 2019.

Since then, some of the largest credit investors have entered the market. In May last year, Apollo Global Management chief executive Mark Rowan declared the firm’s goal of being a “category killer” in the market with an initial $1 billion to deploy.

This followed the entry into the market of Ares Management the previous March with its $1.08 billion acquisition of Landmark Partners. Chief executive Michael Arougheti said at the time that the credit secondaries market would be a key area of growth for Landmark, in addition to its existing PE and real estate businesses.