Goldman Sachs Alternatives closes the West Street Loan Partners V fund after raising more than 20,000 million dollars
29 MAY, 2024
Goldman Sachs Alternatives announced today the definitive closure of its West Street Loan Partners V fund, the latest in a series of flagship vehicles focused on large-cap senior direct lending.
The fund concluded its 'fundraising' with a total capital of 13.1 billion dollars, although in addition to the capital raised, Goldman Sachs Alternatives has also closed more than 7 billion dollars in large-cap senior direct lending managed accounts and 550 million dollars in co-investment vehicles along with Loan Partners V, which raises the total capital raised above 20 billion dollars. The fundraising exceeded the target and is the largest Loan Partners fund raised since the strategy began in 2008.
Institutional investors
The capital raised was obtained from both existing and new investors, in addition to significant commitments from Goldman Sachs and its employees. Among the institutional investors who have participated are American and international pension funds, insurance companies, and sovereign funds. Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management investors, family offices, and third-party wealth channels have also committed. Loan Partners V will be the first fund in the series to disclose information in accordance with Article 8 of the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).
The fundraising takes place amid a significant set of opportunities in the field of direct lending, driven by the expected rebound in merger and acquisition activity, as the private capital reserve is at an unprecedented level and sponsors seek to return capital to investors. This context creates attractive opportunities for alternative sources of direct lending that can provide size, structural flexibility, and execution security to borrowers.
The fund has already begun to invest and will continue to focus on high-quality global companies backed by private capital, leveraging the company's deep relationships with major financial sponsors. To date, Loan Partners V has already invested or committed 4 billion dollars in 37 portfolio companies.
The success of the fundraising reflects the solid track record of the team and the longevity of its unique platform for lending to leading companies backed by private capital in various market environments, providing customized and flexible credit solutions to high-quality borrowers. Since 2008, Goldman Sachs has invested nearly 70 billion dollars in large-cap senior direct lending worldwide.
We are very grateful for the support of current and new investors. The success of the fundraising is a testament to our team's experience and track record throughout the private credit market cycles for nearly 30 years. Given our team's unique ability to secure financing and their relationships with financial sponsors, as well as their extensive investment experience throughout the cycles, we are confident in our ability to continue directly originating attractive senior credit investments in high-quality companies to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for our investors.
Greg Olafson, global head of Private Credit for Goldman Sachs Alternatives
The direct priority loan market continues to benefit from the growing demand from financial sponsors. Although we expect syndicated markets and private credit markets to continue coexisting, we are seeing an increase in attractive opportunities for alternative loan sources that can provide size, structural flexibility, and execution security to borrowers. Our position as a single or main lender to hundreds of world-class companies is another powerful component of sourcing financing. With the closing of our largest capital fund dedicated to this opportunity, we are very pleased to continue the long history of the Loan Partners platform providing creative financing solutions to the world's leading private equity sponsors and high-quality business owners in the U.S. and Europe.
James Reynolds, global head of Direct Lending for Goldman Sachs Alternatives
As a solutions provider for our clients, some of the world's most sophisticated investors, we are delighted to enhance the structure and offering of Loan Partners V to significantly expand our investor base, while seeing the continued support of existing investors. Direct loans to seniors have become an increasingly important allocation for institutional and private clients, and we believe our platform is uniquely positioned to find interesting investment opportunities and apply our rigorous due diligence processes and time-tested underwriting to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns throughout the cycles. We thank our clients for their collaboration and trust in our differentiated approach.
Stephanie Rader, global co-head of Alternatives Capital Formation for Goldman Sachs Alternatives
