Audax Private Debt, a provider of financing solutions for the middle market, and Pantheon, a global credit secondaries solutions investor, closed Audax Direct Lending Solutions Fund I CV (DLS I CV), a $1 billion private credit continuation vehicle.
“We believe this transaction underscores the strength and stability of the DLS I portfolio, our commitment to underwriting discipline, and our longstanding credit-first approach, which have contributed to our performance across market and economic cycles,” Kevin Magid, CEO of Audax Private Debt, said. “It also speaks to our ongoing efforts to deliver flexibility to our investors and optimize outcomes across our many stakeholders, from new and existing limited partners to our private equity sponsor relationships.”
The continuation vehicle was established to acquire a diversified, income-generating portfolio of first-lien senior secured loans and related equity co-investments from Audax Private Debt’s Direct Lending Solutions Fund I, which closed on $1.65 billion in capital commitments in January 2019. Pantheon led and structured the CV transaction.
Through the CV structure, Audax will continue to manage and monitor the assets in the fund. The DLS strategy was launched by Audax Private Debt in 2018, leveraging the firm’s experience and underwriting capabilities across senior secured and junior debt products.
“We’ve known the Audax team for decades and are excited to partner with them to complete this investment,” Rakesh Jain, global head of private credit at Pantheon, said. “As lead investor, we applied our credit, scale and GP solution expertise to deliver a tailored solution, accessing a high-quality, income-generating portfolio.”
Steve Ruby and Rahman Vahabzadeh, managing partners of Audax Private Debt, added, “We believe the CV provides a compelling solution to manage fund-maturity cycles for our investors, while positioning ourselves as a long-term partner to sponsors. The DLS I CV provides a truly bespoke solution for our investor base, calibrated to meet and deliver outcomes aligned to their longer-term needs. We’re excited to partner with Pantheon and believe their structuring expertise and partnership-centric approach helped to make them an ideal partner for this transaction.”
PJT Partners served as financial advisor on the transaction. Kirkland & Ellis acted as legal counsel to Audax Private Debt, and Hogan Lovells served in the same capacity for Pantheon.
