CVC Credit Partners raised $657 million for its second U.S.-focused direct lending fund, CVC Credit Partners U.S. Direct Lending Fund II. The fund will follow the same strategy as its predecessor fund and invest in established U.S. middle market businesses.

The fund surpassed its $500 million target and also is larger than its predecessor fund. The fund has an investor base of institutional capital, including pension funds, insurance companies, asset managers and private wealth, spread across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

“We are very pleased to have been able to close Fund II in such a challenging environment and are extremely grateful to our supportive investor base, which has allowed us to exceed our fund target,” Tom Newberry, global head of private debt at CVC Credit Partners, said. “Given the current market volatility, we are fortunate to have a significant amount of dry powder to invest. We continue to review attractive investment opportunities and expect to be able to construct a portfolio of high quality assets for Fund II.”

CVC Credit’s US Direct Lending strategy seeks to provide investors access to a diversified and balanced portfolio of privately negotiated, senior-secured, floating rate loans to established U.S. middle market companies with EBITDA of $10 million to $40 million. To date, CVC Credit Partners has deployed more than $1 billion of commitments for its U.S. direct lending strategy, having made more than 70 investments.

“This successful fundraising fits perfectly with our strategy of making sure we have significant capital available across the CVC Credit platform to deploy when the credit cycle turns,” Hamish Buckland, chairman of CVC Credit Partners, said. “The market has clearly tightened, which bodes well for this new fund. It is also another key step in the continuing development of our private debt franchise.”

CVC Credit Partners is a global credit asset manager with offices in the U.S. and Europe, 60 investment professionals and $26 billion assets under management, as at Dec. 31, 2019.