Leverage Limits: Stress-Testing Middle Market Debt Capacity in a Volatile 2025 Economy
The U.S. middle market is awash in private credit, fueling dealmaking at a breakneck pace as 2025 unfolds. With economic...
Forward for Specialty Finance
The $35,000 KPI: Why CAC Is the Hidden Lever of Growth for Middle Market Dealmakers
The $35,000 KPI: Why CAC Is the Hidden Lever of Growth for Middle Market Dealmakers Introduction: CAC as the Unseen...
Operational Value Creation: The Collaboration Between PE Operating Partners and Lender Monitoring Teams
Two groups that once viewed each other with often adversarial mindsets—PE operating partners and lender monitoring teams—are increasingly finding common...
The Migration of Direct Lending Down-market: How Sub-$50M EBITDA Companies Are Accessing Private Credit
In the wake of a historic period of bank retrenchment, a financing revolution is taking place that's reshaping how smaller...
The Non-Bank Wave: How Non-Bank Lenders Are Redefining Middle Market Capital Structures in 2025
Non-bank lenders---independent finance companies and private credit funds---are surging past traditional banks, wielding flexible financing tools to reshape capital structures...
The Regulatory Horizon for Specialty Finance: Preparing for New Oversight
By Lisa RafterAs specialty finance fuels middle market dealmaking in 2025, a wave of pending regulations looms on the horizon,...
ABL vs. Cash Flow Lending: The Convergence of Structures in Middle Market Deals
By Lisa Rafter The once-distinct lines between asset-based lending and cash flow lending are continuing to fade, giving rise to...
Asset Quality Concerns Mount in Asset-Based Lending as Economic Headwinds Persist
As economic turbulence intensifies in Q1/2025, asset-based lending (ABL) faces growing scrutiny over asset quality across sponsored and non-sponsored deals....
Fed’s Powell Revives ‘Transitory’ — What It Means for Middle-Market Dealmaking
In a surprising throwback to 2021, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell dusted off the word “transitory” during Wednesday’s post-meeting press...
20,000+ Middle Market Dealmakers, One Pulse
March 18, 2025 – The ABF Journal has launched Digital Pulse 2025, a new digital-only publication designed to connect the...
