Carlyle Eyes Revival of Private Credit CLO Platform

 

Carlyle Group is reentering the private credit CLO issuance space and is marketing the first new deal from its platform in over five years, according to market sources. The manager is working with JP Morgan on the transaction, which is named Carlyle Direct Lending CLO 2024-1.

The CLO is marketed at a $425 million deal size, with triple-A price talk in the SOFR+ 165 to 170 bps range. Sources say that the triple-A to single-As are available to investors while the junior debt and equity is not available.

Carlyle issued two CLOs backed by private credit in the past. Carlyle Global Market Strategies Finance MM CLO 2015-1 priced in June 2015 and was reset in Aug. 2018, when it was renamed Carlyle Direct Lending CLO 2015-1R. The transaction left reinvestment in October 2023. In April 2019 Carlyle priced a $400.3 million static CLO named Middle Market Credit Fund CLO 2019-2. Citi was the arranger on all of Carlyle’s earlier private credit CLO transactions.

As demand for private credit CLOs increases, more and more managers are growing their footprint in the space. Ares Management launched a new shelf of private credit CLOs this year with the first deal from the platform, Ares Direct Lending CLO 1, pricing in June.

KKR is also in the process of launching a new private credit CLO franchise, working with BNP Paribas on the forthcoming KIMM Funding I. Comvest Credit Partners also entered the industry this year with its first deal, Comvest Credit 2024-1, arriving via Deutsche Bank in July.

A spokesperson for Carlye declined to comment.