New Mountain Capital, which manages more than $35 billion across private equity, credit and net lease real estate, closed its latest direct lending fund, New Mountain Guardian III BDC, with approximately $1.15 billion of capital commitments from investors, including an investment from the general partner and employees of the firm. The fund is expected to have approximately $2 billion in investable capital, including leverage.

As of Sept. 30, 2021, New Mountain Guardian III BDC had already deployed more than $1.1 billion into 79 portfolio companies across a variety of industries, including enterprise software, business services, healthcare services and healthcare technology.

“We would like to thank our investors for their strong support,” Steve Klinsky, founder and CEO of New Mountain Capital, said. “We believe New Mountain’s investment philosophy of focusing on defensive growth industries where we have deep expertise continues to be a successful strategy for our credit business and proven to be a key differentiator.”

“We believe that the current environment, where robust sponsor deal activity and strong overall credit conditions are coupled with continued uncertainty and volatility in certain sectors, is especially well-suited to our agile and selective approach to credit investing,” Robert Hamwee, managing director and co-portfolio manager of private credit strategies at New Mountain Capital, said. “We look forward to working with leading sponsors and portfolio companies to support their growth while pursuing attractive and consistent returns.”

“We were very pleased to see the strong reception Guardian III received from who we believe to be some of the leading sophisticated and experienced investors,” John Kline, managing director and co-portfolio manager of private credit strategies at New Mountain Capital, said. “Our ability to leverage the resources, investing experience, knowledge and relationships of the entire New Mountain platform to help source and evaluate opportunities is a true differentiator and we are excited to utilize that capability for the benefit of all of our stakeholders.”

New Mountain Capital recently completed its third U.S. collateralized loan obligation transaction and also celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the IPO of its publicly traded business development company, New Mountain Finance Corporation.