Sixth Street, a global investment firm with more than $50 billion in assets under management, closed its second fund dedicated to direct lending for middle market and growth companies across Europe. Sixth Street Specialty Lending Europe II (SLE II) reached its hard cap with €1 billion ($1.23 billion) in equity commitments. Sixth Street is actively investing out of the fund and has committed to five investments already.
“We want to thank our limited partners for their long-term trust and support as we continue to successfully execute on our differentiated strategy during these uncertain times,” Joshua Easterly, co-founder and co-president of Sixth Street, said. “This capital raise is consistent with our approach of disciplined, patient fund sizing to serve our core client base of middle market companies, coupled with the upsize flexibility from Sixth Street TAO, which allows us to commit quickly and in size to larger transactions.”
Sixth Street TAO is the firm’s $24 billion platform for investing across all of Sixth Street’s eight diversified, collaborative investment strategies, including Sixth Street Specialty Lending.
“Our business in Europe keeps growing as more companies and management teams recognize the breadth and capabilities of the full Sixth Street platform,” Michael Griffin, a partner at Sixth Street who leads the specialty lending team in Europe, said. “We have transacted in nine countries since expanding our specialty lending strategy to Europe five years ago, and we look forward to continuing to provide financing solutions for our sponsor and direct-to-company partners.”
Select current and past representative investments of Sixth Street’s direct lending strategy in Europe include BluJay Solutions, Easy Software, CDK International, ClearCourse Partnership, Kyriba, Medius, Nintex and Smart Communications. Sixth Street also provides life sciences royalty financing, retail asset-backed lending and bespoke debt and equity capital solutions.
Sixth Street launched Sixth Street Specialty Lending in North America in 2011 and expanded the specialty lending platform to Europe in 2015. SLE II follows its predecessor SLE I, which had €800 million ($980.04 million) in equity capital and originated more than €3 billion ($3.68 billion) in financings.
Sixth Street’s direct lending business in Europe was previously known as TPG Specialty Lending Europe. Sixth Street and TPG announced an agreement to become mutually independent on May 1, 2020.
