Capital One Healthcare’s Corporate Finance Group has been named the No. 1 lead arranger for healthcare leveraged loans up to $1 billion. The corporate finance team closed more than 110 transactions in 2016. Capital One Healthcare, which provides both corporate and real estate finance, closed more than 220 transactions in total.

“Over the past year we fused the Capital One and GE Capital, Healthcare Financial Services teams together into a seamless organization focused on serving our clients,” said Darren Alcus, president, Capital One Healthcare. “I’m proud to say that, as a part of Capital One, we’ve raised our game, maintained our market leadership and expanded our capabilities.”

Capital One Healthcare is active across a broad range of healthcare sub-sectors—including long-term care, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, hospitals and outpatient services, healthcare IT and medical properties — financing acquisitions, recapitalizations and working capital needs.

“As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve over the coming year, we are looking forward to providing our clients with a broad range of financial products and services along with the resources of a top 10 U.S. bank,” Alcus said.

“This spring we witnessed a dramatic change in the market’s direction,” said Al Aria, senior managing director of Capital One Healthcare’s corporate finance team. “The volatility and macro issues weighing down the leveraged loan and high-yield markets dissipated, allowing M&A deals to move forward.” As the year progressed, Aria noted, CLOs began to attract more investors, and the outflow from loan mutual funds slowed and then reversed. “By any measure, the market ended up in a much better place this year than where it began,” said Aria.

“Perhaps the biggest news for Capital One was the introduction of a new unitranche loan product,” Aria said. The program will be implemented by Capital One Healthcare with HPS Investment Partners as a strategic co-investor. “We can now offer our customers all the advantages of unitranche finance, including certainty of execution, simplicity and speed.”

The Corporate Finance team provides private equity and corporate customers with deep industry expertise in all aspects of healthcare financing, including acquisition, refinance and working capital.

Noteworthy transaction: In December, Capital One served as administrative agent, joint lead arranger and joint bookrunner for a $265 million senior credit facility to support Consonance Capital’s dividend recapitalization of Keystone Peer Review Organization Holdings (KEPRO), the nation’s largest CMS-designated quality improvement organization and care management organization.