The Latest in ABS and Debt Markets

Welcome to The Data Tapes—your biweekly snapshot of private credit and ABS markets. In each edition, we bring you concise updates on debt financings, platform fundraises, data insights, market trends, and the latest from Setpoint.

🚀 What’s New at Setpoint

• We launched Setpoint’s Data Standardization Suite—a game-changer for capital providers and borrowers struggling with inconsistent data tapes. Automate validation, standardization, and reporting to move faster, reduce risk, and make more confident funding decisions. Learn more here.

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💸 Debt Financings & Acquisitions

• Altavair, an aviation leasing platform, completed a $582.9M ABS issuance to finance the purchase of 24 passenger aircraft. 

• Applied Digital, a builder and operator of digital infrastructure for HPC applications, closed a $375M debt financing with SMBC to support data center buildouts at the Ellendale HPC Campus.  

• Chicago Atlantic BDC, a specialty finance company, closed a $100M senior secured revolving credit facility with an unnamed bank to support originations growth. 

• Compass Datacenters, a data center owner-operator, is going to market with an $885M ABS issuance secured by revenues from three data centers in Phoenix and Toronto. 

• Driveway Finance Corp, an indirect auto finance platform, is preparing a $600M ABS issuance secured by prime retail auto installment loans.

• EB5 Capital, a platform that raises funds from foreign investors through the EB-5 Program, closed a $100M credit facility from EagleBank. 

• Eclipse Business Capital, an asset-based lending platform, upsized its primary ABL facility to $1.9B with Wells Fargo and a syndicate of US banks. 

• Eskola Roofing and Waterproofing, a commercial roofing business, closed a senior secured credit facility from Encina Private Credit. 

• FINN, German car subscription platform, closed a new ABS financing program with volume up to €1B from Jefferies and Citi to support fleet financing needs. 

• GLS, an auto finance platform, is preparing to go to market with a $655M ABS issuance backed by a pool of subprime auto leases. 

• GM Financial prepares to issue a $1.4B auto ABS secured by a pool of autos, light duty trucks, and utility vehicles. 

• Healthcare Funding Partners, a healthcare insurance distribution company, closed a $180M senior secured credit facility with JPMorgan and Citi. 

• LendingClub, a consumer finance platform, closed a $100M LendingClub Structured Loan Certificate (SLCLC) transaction and secured an IG rating from Fitch. 

• OppFi, a consumer finance platform, upsized its revolving credit facility with Blue Owl Alternative Credit from $250M to $300M to scale origination volume over the next few years.

• Pagaya, a consumer finance and residential real estate platform, closed a forward flow program with Blue Owl to purchase up to $2.4B of consumer loans through Pagaya network over the next 24 months. Pagaya also closed a $300M auto loan ABS transaction. 

• Sabley Center Properties is going to market with a $410M ABS issuance secured by data center leases on 7+ properties. 

• Unnamed small business finance company based in Long Island closed a $50M senior secured revolving warehouse facility with Keystone to finance originations. 

• Unnamed structured credit fund closed a $46M first-out commitment with Encina Lender Finance. 

💰️Platform Growth

• Antares launches flagship public, non-traded private credit BDC to invest in senior secured floating rate loans to PE-owned businesses.

• Invesco Private Credit closed $1.4B for its flagship Invesco Direct Lending Fund II. 

• M&G acquires a majority stake in P Capital Partners (PCP), a European private credit business.  

• Neuberger Berman announced final close of NB Specialty Finance Fund III LP, raising over $1.6B. 

• o15 Capital Partners, a mission-driven alternative investment firm, raises $400M in its inaugural fund.

• Oaktree closes $16B Opportunities Fund XII to invest along public and private credits.

• Sixth Street, First Citizens Bank form a JV called Sixty-First Commercial Finance to provide mid- and large-ticket equipment financing solutions to middle market companies. Bank of America is arranging a $300M warehouse facility to finance the JV. 

• Tikehau Capital raised €1.2B for its special opportunities strategy.

📈 Visuals

 🗣️ Market Commentary

• “At KKR, we expect the move towards capital light models, including insurance, housing, autos, manufacturing, and consumer receivables, to intensify, with companies adopting innovative, cross-asset financing structures to enhance earnings, execute growth plans, and improve operational efficiency. This desire for more streamlined, less capital-intensive structures aligns with the rise of private capital solutions. This business offers companies a flexible and scalable approach to meet the changing needs of modern issuers and sponsors. In the credit space, this trend has played out dynamically in the Asset-Based Finance and Real Estate sectors. Adding to the momentum behind capital light businesses is the fact that capital-intensive companies are now trading at a discount, which is accelerating the shift towards off-balance-sheet financing solutions.” - Henry McVey, KKR on shift to capital light business models 

• “At the start of 2024, spreads were 200 basis points higher, but in many cases, they are now below 100bps…You’re not being paid enough for the liquidity risk you’re taking…You’re going to have pretenders and people who can actually do it quite well. There’s so much pressure to deploy capital that underwriting standards may be compromised.” - Kris Kraus, PIMCO on skepticism within direct lending segment of private credit  

• “Phase I was a shift out of the banking system for corporate credit. Now in 2022, the regional bank crisis was the accelerant for this asset based discussion because a lot of these assets came out of banks’ balance sheets or banks stopped buying when their cost of capital went from 0% to 5%. We’ve been doing this for a long time, but the accelerant, the opportunity set, and why it became so topical was in 2022 when these assets came out of the banking system. And now our opportunity is to take these assets out of the public markets, bank markets, and securitization markets and provide more stable, predictable, private capital for these assets out of funds and be a better, longer term partner for these businesses. These business’ inventory is cash. And we want to be the provider of that, and a better provider for that than a potentially much more volatile securitization market. We want to be the reliable counterparty and do that at scale. The other part is this is really not particularly penetrated. The opportunity we can count to something like $400B of capital that’s been raised to address a $11T and growing market. Like in corporate direct lending, this is going to grow. “ - Ivan Zinn, Blue Owl Alternative Credit on the environment for asset-backed finance

📖 What We’re Reading & Listening To

• A Broader Toolkit to Capitalize on the Credit Opportunity, from Mike Zawadzki (Blackstone) 

• Alternative Lending Monthly Market Update & Analysis, from FT Partners

• Apollo Investor Presentation

• An Acceleration in the Global Flywheel, from Henry McVey (KKR)

• And One More Thing…in Credit, from KKR

• Blue Owl 2025 Investor Day 

• Brookfield plans to double Credit AUM in 5 years (WSJ) 

• Eyes on the Market, Q1 2025 from Rithm Capital 

• Fund Finance Annual Report, from Haynes Boone

• Global Private Markets Report 2025, from McKinsey

• Navigating LMEs with Armen Panossisan, Ronnie Kaplan, and Ross Rosenfelt (Oaktree)

• Podcast with Brendan Carroll of Victory Park, with Investment Innovation Institute

• Private Credit is the New Public Credit, from Matt Levine (Bloomberg)

• Q424 Asset Manager Earnings: Brookfield 

• Supply Chain Financing report from Citi GPS

• Victory Park Viewpoints: 2024 Year in Review and Path Ahead to 2025, from Victory Park