Crescent Capital Group, an alternative credit investment firm, closed its third direct lending fund, Crescent Direct Lending Fund III (CDL Fund III), raising $6 billion in investable capital, including targeted leverage and separately managed accounts investing alongside the fund. CDL Fund III was significantly oversubscribed, exceeding its initial target by over $1 billion, with total equity commitments of $3.2 billion and $1 billion in targeted leverage. The fund was more than double the size of its predecessor fund, Crescent Direct Lending Fund II, which closed in November 2018 with $1.6 billion in equity commitments. The fund attracted a diverse mix of U.S. and international institutional investors including insurance companies, pension funds, financial institutions, foundations and endowments. CDL Fund III is actively investing and has issued $1.6 billion of senior loan commitments to date.
“Our direct lending platform continues to grow, and with the scale of CDL Fund III, we are in position to continue to offer our clients superior flexible capital to meet their business needs,” Jean-Marc Chapus, managing partner and co-founder of Crescent Capital Group, said. “This successful fundraise is a testament to the strength and appeal of Crescent Capital’s overall private credit platform, and we appreciate our investors’ continued support of our longstanding strategies.”
“We are pleased with the strong support we received from both existing and new investors on a global basis for Crescent Direct Lending Fund III,” John Bowman and Scott Carpenter, co-heads of Crescent Direct Lending, said. “With $6 billion of total capital across CDL Fund III and related SMAs, we continue to manage one of the largest balance sheets focused on directly originated lending to U.S.-based, private equity-backed companies in the lower middle-market. This balance sheet strength allows us to offer our private equity clients substantial capital for both platform and add-on acquisitions with target hold capabilities of $150 million to $200 million in size, and the ability to finance larger transactions across the entire Crescent Capital platform. This strong capital base provides sponsors a significant competitive advantage in terms of certainty of financing, the ability to close large transactions on an expedited basis, and the ability to provide add-on capital as their companies grow.”
