PE deal teams can increasingly access direct lending for large, cross-border buyouts but regulatory and structuring challenges across jurisdictions remain.

By Marcello Bragliani, Tom D. Evans, Michel Houdayer, Joseph Kimberling, David J. Walker, Thomas Weitkamp, Antonina Semyachkova, Catherine Campbell, and Yien Ee

Direct lending has long been a feature of the debt market, and has recently taken market share on predominantly small- to medium-cap deals. However, as syndicated debt markets remain dislocated, direct lenders are stepping up on a growing range of European PE transactions, such as The Access Group’s c.£3.2 billion refinancing, one of the largest unitranche deals in Europe to date.