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

• 🤝 On the road this fall - let's connect. We’re attending a number of industry events in the coming months. Here are two upcoming conferences where we’d love to meet.

  • IMN’s HEI & Home Equity Conference | Sept 8-9, Austin, TX: Book time with our team.

  • DealCatalyst’s ABF 2025 Conference | Sept. 25-26, New York, NY. Book a time with our team.

• 🌆 Upcoming Setpoint Events:

  • Capital Conversations at Franklin BBQ Sept. 10: We’re teaming up with Texas Capital, LiveOak Ventures, and Saluda Grade for a private buyout of Austin’s legendary Franklin Barbecue. No lines, no crowds—just top-tier barbecue and conversation with fellow capital markets leaders. Apply to attend.

  • ABF Pickleball Social in Central Park Oct. 1: Join fellow capital markets and asset-backed finance professionals for a sunset evening of casual pickleball, cocktails, elevated bites, and conversation — all from private cabanas with skyline views. All skill levels welcome. Apply to attend.

💸 Debt Financings & Acquisitions

• A&D Mortgage, a mortgage finance company, closed a partnership with Canyon Partners to sell up to $250M in mortgage bonds. 

• Bankers Healthcare Group (BHG), a consumer and commercial finance originator, closed a $396M ABS issuance backed by a pool of consumer loans to high-income professionals. 

• beatBread, a music funding platform, closed a $124M financing in credit and equity from Citi, Deciens Capital, Mucker Capital, and Advantage Capital. 

• Consumer Portfolio Services, an auto finance platform, closed a $418.3M ABS issuance secured by a pool of subprime auto receivables. 

• CoreWeave, an AI hyperscaler, closed a $2.6B delayed draw term loan with Morgan Stanley, MUFG, and a syndicate of banks to support purchase and maintenance of equipment, hardware, and cloud infrastructure. 

• DLL, a vendor financing platform, closed a $793M ABS issuance secured by a diverse pool of loans and leases within food, agriculture, and outdoor sectors. 

• EdgeCore, a data center developer, owner, and operator, closed a $235M ABS deal backed by a fully stabilized Phoenix data center. 

• eStruxture, a Canada-based data center platform, closed a C$1.35B financing, including a C$750M asset-only data center securitization, to develop AI data centers in Canada.

• FarmOp Capital, an agricultural lending platform, closed a $250M forward flow agreement with Carlyle. 

• Harley Davison, a motorcycle OEM, announced a long-term partnership between Harley Davison Financial Services and KKR and PIMCO, selling more than $5B of retail loan receivables at a premium 

• Hilton Grand Vacations, a timeshare platform, closed a $400M ABS deal secured by a pool of timeshare loans. 

• JG Wentworth, a consumer finance platform, closed a $175M expanded forward flow agreement with One William Street. JG Wentworth also closed a $225M senior secured credit facility with Pathlight Capital for JGW Debt Settlement. 

• Kalamata, a small business financing platform, upsized its 2024-1 securitization to $500M. 

• LendingClub, a consumer finance originator, announced a partnership with BlackRock to invest up to $1B in LendingClub’s marketplace programs through 2026. 

• Octane, a financial platform for recreational purchases, closed a $300M forward flow deal with Moore Capital to purchase fixed-rate installment powersports loans.

• Pagaya, a consumer finance and residential real estate platform, closed a $500M prefunded securitization backed by a pool of consumer loans under its PAID shelf. 

• Ramp, a financial operations and credit card platform, raised $500M at a $22.5B valuation led by ICONIQ. 

• SMBC, a Japanese bank, plans an SRT transaction tied to a pool of $8B of subscription lines to private equity and private credit funds. 

• Space Coast Credit Union, a credit union, closed a $507.62M ABS deal secured by a pool of prime motor vehicle and installment contracts.  

• Sunbit, a point of sale finance originator, closed its inaugural ABS with a $200M issuance collateralized by a pool of unsecured consumer loans. 

• Tricon Residential, an owner and operator of single family homes and apartments, closed a $425.1M pass-through transaction secured by mortgages from 1,500+ SFR homes. 

• Unlock, an home equity investment platform, closed a $250M purchase commitment with D2 Asset Management to support origination of HEAs. 

• Upgrade, a consumer finance originator, announced a $1B forward flow program with Rithm Capital to purchase home improvement loans. 

• Western Funding, a Westlake subsidiary, closed a $400M inaugural ABS deal backed by a pool of auto loans originated in Western’s dealer network.

💰️Platform Growth

• Aberdeen raised £233M for its abrdn Private Credit Fund Finance strategy. 

• Antares announced a casualty sidecar partnership with Ascot Group Ltd to launch Wayfare Reinsurance Limited, where Antares will serve as the exclusive private credit asset manager for Wayfare Re. 

• Aperture Investors announced a $1B asset-based finance strategy with seed capital from Generali Investments. 

• Brookfield plans to invest as much as $9.8B in AI infrastructure in Sweden over the next 10-15 years.

• Comvest sells a 75% stake to Manulife Financial for $937.5M in upfront consideration. 

• Coromandel Capital announced a strategic partnership with Origami Capital Partners to support acceleration of Coromandel’s lending programs. 

• Fifth Third, Eldridge announced a strategic partnership to offer private credit arrangements to Fifth Third banking clients. 

• Goldman Sachs raises over $6B for evergreen European private credit strategy. 

• Hayfin takes in minority investments from Mubadala and AXA IM Prime. 

• Hercules Capital launches Hercules Growth Capital IV to invest in venture and growth stage credit. 

• KKR completes $6.5B fundraise for KKR Asset-Based Finance Partners II to invest in privately originated credit investments backed by pools of financial and hard assets. This brings KKR’s total ABF AUM to over $74B. 

• KKR acquires HealthCare Royalty Partners, a biopharma royalty acquisition company with $3B in AUM. 

• Neuberger Berman closed a QIAIF mandate with Railpen, a UK-based pension fund, to invest in CLOs, ABS, and MBS deals. 

• Nuveen Green Capital raises $785M for its C-PACE strategy. 

• PGIM closed $4.2B for its latest middle market direct lending fund. 

• Pinnacle Financial Partners, Synovus agreed to combine in an all-stock transaction valued at $8.6B. The combined entity will operate under the Pinnacle Financial Partners and Pinnacle Bank brand. 

• Post Road Group closed over $1B in capital commitments for its corporate investment strategy. 

• Sabal Investment Holdings closed two private CRE funds totalling $720M in capital commitments. 

• WisdomTree to acquire Ceres Partners, a US-based asset manager focused on farmland investments with $1.85B in AUM. 

📈 Visuals

 🗣️ Market Commentary

• “There are three that stand out: (1) Private Student Lending: The exit of most banks and the dismantling of the $1.5 trillion federal student loan program will potentially create a large opportunity for private credit to fill the void. (2) Infrastructure Credit: We’ll be seeing a lot more infrastructure spending over the next several years from AI to energy to deglobalization, and many of those projects will need customized financings that private credit players will be better suited to provide. (3) Home Finance: Financing the residential home ecosystem from land, home improvements, home equity, etc. is an asset class that lends itself to providers of senior leverage. The post-GFC persistent undersupply of housing stock relative to household formation creates a supply-demand balance favoring providing financing into this ecosystem.” - Akhil Bansal, Head of Asset-Backed Finance at Carlyle on Ares of Opportunity in Asset-Backed Finance 

• “Sponsors have been really active in refinancing names from private credit into the broadly syndicated market. If the company is performing well, and can save a good portion on its debt by refinancing, we’ve seen the broadly syndicated market be really competitive.” - Ted Goldthorpe, partner and head of credit at BC Partners on Opportunities in BSL Market

• “In asset-backed securities, prime consumer credit is holding up, but inflation is pressuring weaker borrowers. Our team is also starting to see some cracks amongst borrowers of all credit grades that have student loans as the payment moratorium has ended. Thus, we strongly favor top-tier issuers or originators. In commercial ABS, we continue to focus on contractual cash flows that are essential to companies or that are less sensitive to economic downturns.” - Edwin Wilches, Co-Head of Securitized Products, PGIM on Q3 ABS Outlook

• “And within private credit, you've seen that grow at a very healthy rate. We're up 20% year-over-year, $120 billion of AUM. $75 billion of that is asset-based finance. That year-over-year growth is in the mid-20s, so I think with $75 billion of ABF AUM growing at a north of 20% year-over-year rate, you get a sense of the significance of this business and the growth trajectory that we've seen. And as we think about this overall environment, are companies that want to see or are electing to go in a more capital-light fashion and if there's a way for them to free up capital and use that capital for other strategic initiatives. And I think at the heart, that's what you saw in the Harley-Davidson deal.” - Craig Larson, Head of IR at KKR on ABF Growth and Harley Davidson deal

📖 What We’re Reading & Listening To

Earnings Reports

• Asset Managers: Ares, Apollo, Brookfield, Blackstone, Carlyle, KKR, Rithm, TPG

Reading

• Brookfield’s Insurer Trims Private Credit, Citing Crowded Trade (Insurance Journal)

• Buyout Firm Vista Eyes over $200M in Savings by Ditching Private Debt (Bloomberg)

• Dragged Out to Sea: The Ongoing Stress and Distress in the US Middle Market (Marblegate Asset Management)

• Growth and Venture Debt (BlackRock) 

• KKR’s Healthcare Royalty Partners Deal Signals New Front in ABF Origination Wars (Covenant Lite)

• Market Volatility: Another Factor Driving Private Credit’s Expansion (HPS)

• Private Debt Investors Take a Closer Look at Collateral in Booming Market (Bloomberg)

Podcasts & Interviews

• Carlyle CEO Harvey Schwartz on Private Credit (Bloomberg)

• Full Contact Capitalism – Andrew Milgram, Marblegate Asset Management (Invest Like the Best)

• Jeffrey Gundlack Breaks Down the Fed’s Dilemma and His Market Outlook (DoubleLine)

• Private Capital Gets More Alternative (McKinsey)

• Real Estate Private Credit with Madison’s Zegen (Bloomberg)

• The End of Easy Private Credit and What Comes Next with Michael Gross, CEO of SLR (Industry Insights)