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

• “AI will happen to you—or by you”: Stuart Wall on Ripple Effects: Our CEO & Co-Founder Stu joined CSIS’s Ripple Effects Podcast with Navin Thukkaram to talk about how AI is being deployed behind the scenes—in infrastructure, workflows, and credit systems—not just consumer apps. Listen here.

• Event Recap: Setpoint x Gilgamesh Ventures: ABF fishing trip in Montauk - We recently hosted a deep sea fishing trip with Gilgamesh Ventures, bringing together leaders across fintech, private credit, and structured finance. Want to join the next one? Apply here.

💸 Debt Financings & Acquisitions

• Affirm, a consumer BNPL platform, extended its forward flow purchase program with Moore Capital through 2027. Moore has invested nearly $5B in Affirm’s assets since 2017. Affirm also expanded its forward flow purchase program with PGIM Fixed Income, committing to purchase up to $3B over 36 months. 

• Aircraft Engine Lease Finance (AELF), a commercial aircraft leasing platform, closed a $55M credit facility from Merchants Bank. 

• Apollo, an asset manager, agreed to invest up to £4.5B in fixed-rate callable notes issued by Électricité de France (“EDF”), where proceeds will finance EDF projects in the UK. 

• Arra Finance, a subprime indirect auto finance company, acquired the auto financing division of Crescent Bank, a New Orleans-based bank with $1B in assets. Global Lending Services, Flagship Credit also said to be for sale. 

• Aviation Capital Group, an aircraft leasing platform, closed a $1B delayed draw credit facility with Crédit Agricole and a syndicate of banks. 

• Best Egg, a consumer finance platform, announced a new lending partnership with Column Bank where Column will serve as a bank partner and funding source for secured and unsecured loans. 

• Carmoola, a UK-based auto finance company, closed a £300M asset-backed credit facility with NatWest and Chenavari Investment Managers. 

• Carvana, an online used car retailer, issues a $670M ABS deal backed by a pool of prime auto loans.  

• Crusoe, a vertically integrated AI infrastructure provider, closed a $750M credit facility with Brookfield Asset Management to support growth of Crusoe’s AI data centers and cloud platform. 

• Diversified Energy Company PLC, a natural gas and liquids production company, announced a partnership with Carlyle’s Asset-Based Finance arm to invest up to $2B in existing proved development producing (PDP) natural gas and oil assets in the US.

• eCapital, a middle market ABL platform, upsized its asset-based lending facility to $1.38B with Wells Fargo and a syndicate of banks. 

• Funding Circle, a UK-based SME finance platform, closed a £230M credit facility with Citi to scale originations for FlexiPay, Funding Circle’s flexible payment product. 

• Happy Money, a consumer finance platform, closed a $500M forward flow agreement with Fortress and Edge Focus to fuel expansion of Happy Money’s personal loan product. 

• Hercules Capital, a venture debt lending platform, increased its credit facility with MUFG and a syndicate of banks to $440M. 

• Kubota Credit, the financing arm of Kubota, closed a $733M ABS issuance backed by a pool of agricultural, construction, and utility vehicle leases. 

• NewtekOne, a financial services platform, upsized its credit facility with Deutsche Bank to $170M to finance originations of its Alternative Loan Program before securitization.  

• North Mill Equipment Finance, an equipment finance platform, announced a JV with Oaktree to support growth of NMEF’s fair market value equipment leasing platform. 

• Pagaya, a consumer finance platform, closed a new $600M ABS deal secured by personal loans originated through Pagaya’s proprietary network. 

• Phoenix Aviation Capital, an aircraft lessor managed by AIP Capital, closed a $300M credit facility with RBC, Citi, and Morgan Stanley. 

• Plenitude, an energy transition platform controlled by Eni, announced a €2B investment from Ares to acquire a 20% stake in the company. 

• Rithm Capital, an asset manager, closed a $504M ABS deal secured by a pool of non-QM loans serviced by Rithm’s subsidiary, Newrez.  

• Standard Premium Finance Holdings, an insurance premium finance platform, upsized its credit facility to $50M with First Horizon Bank. 

• Tricolor, a consumer auto finance platform, closed a $217M securitization backed by a pool of consumer auto loans. 

• Wells Fargo, a Tier 1 bank, is preparing to sell $500M in asset-backed securities secured by a pool of receivables from revolving consumer credit cards. 

💰️Platform Growth

• Arini Direct Lending Fund announced a $200M anchor commitment from BCI for its new European direct lending platform.

• Bayview Asset Management to acquire remaining stake in Guild Holdings, a mortgage lender, for $1.3B in a take-private deal. 

• Carlyle, Citi announced a partnership to collaborate on asset-backed financing opportunities in the fintech specialty lending space. 

• D2 Residential announced a partnership with Natixis to provide financing solutions for multifamily apartments and other commercial residential assets.  

• First Eagle launched First Eagle Real Estate Debt Fund, a fund managed by Napier Park to invest in public and private real estate debt markets. 

• Golub Capital BDC increased its revolving credit facility with GC Advisors to $300M. 

• Ivy Asset Group announced its Ivy Evergreen Fund surpassed $100M in AUM. 

• Kayne Anderson closed Kayne Anderson Real Estate Opportunistic Debt II with $1.685B in commitments to invest across medical office, senior housing, multifamily, and student housing.

• Locust Point Capital closes Locust Point Private Credit Fund III with $668M to invest in senior housing and healthcare lending. 

• Macquarie Asset Management closed $6.8B for Macquarie Infrastructure Partners VI to acquire assets in transportation, digital infrastructure, utilities, energy, and waste sectors in the Americas. 

• NorthWall Capital raised €1.6B this year bringing total AUM to €2.9B spanning senior lending, asset-based credit, and legal assets. 

• PGIM merges public and private credit teams to create a unit with nearly $1T in assets. 

• TPG acquired PepperTree Capital Management, a $7.7B AUM asset manager focused on telecom infrastructure, for $242M in cash and up to $418M in equity. 

• Varde launched a fund finance platform with $300M of equity capital from CPPIB.

📈 Visuals

 🗣️ Market Commentary

• “Public credit has outperformed private credit for a few quarters now. I think there’s a lot of over investment in private credit and the liquidity is not very good. And I just don’t think the excess reward is anything close to what it used to be. I would view that as a place where there would be forced selling. Once one University is publicly acknowledging they have liquidity problems…it becomes systemic.” - Jeff Gundlach, CEO at DoubleLine on Contentions with Private Credit 

• “In credit specifically, because there’s less capital here in Europe, we see excess spreads, we see lower leverage levels, that’s why we have been active.” - Michael Zawadzki, Global CIO at Blackstone Credit & Insurance on the Credit Opportunity in Europe

• "As GDP grows, asset-backed credit grows – it's directly linked to Main Street economic activities. Where we're really seeing growth is the shift out of credit creation, historically, living on bank balance sheets, and moving into the non-bank ecosystem. We have many longstanding relationships going back five to ten years, so we may be a lender to a counterparty when bank capital is not sufficient. The shift from bank balance sheets to non-bank origination companies has been occurring since the GFC – it's just been happening very organically, very slowly. Folks that were focused on it, like ourselves, have been playing a part in that growth." - TJ Durkin, Head of Structured Credit & Specialty Finance at TPG

• “US electricity demand has been flat for the last decade, but now we’re at an inflection point where it’s projected to grow 40% to 50% over the next decade. It’s being driven by data centers, new large scale manufacturing facilities, and by the electrification of our lives. If you add an electric vehicle to your home, it can increase electricity consumption by 40%. This rising demand is going to require trillions of dollars of private capital over the next decade.” - Greg Blank, CEO of BXINFRA on Growing Electricity Demand in the US

📖 What We’re Reading & Listening To

Reading

• Asset-Based Lending: Unpacking the Risks and Rewards (iCapital) 

• Capital Intensity Isn’t Bad (Not Boring)

• Coatue’s East Meets West 2025 Deck (Coatue)

• Convergence of Public and Private Credit (PGIM)

• More Homeowners Find Themselves Underwater (WSJ)

• More on Repealing the Laws of Economics (Howard Marks memo - Oaktree)

• Rethinking the Architecture of Specialty Finance Platforms (Edgar Matthews)

• What Role Can Private Credit Play in Individual Investors’ Portfolios? (KKR)

Podcasts & Interviews

• Baring’s Bryan High on Adjusting to Volatility (Bloomberg Credit Crunch)

• Blue Owl’s Ivan Zinn - Running the Long Race in Private Credit (Alt Goes Mainstream) 

• Extracting Value from Inefficient European Credit Markets with Fabian Chrobog of North Wall Capital (Credit Clubhouse) 

• Jim Egan on the Mortgage Gap That’s Dividing America (Bloomberg Odd Lots)

• Josh Koplewicz: Flexible Capital and Creative Structures at Thayer Street (Capital Allocators) 

• Originations as a Differentiator with Zia Uddin, President of Monroe Capital (Credit Clubhouse)

• Silver Point Sees Game Over for Some Private Debt Funds When Cycle Turns (Bloomberg)

• What Is Asset-Backed Finance? (TCW)