Crescent Capital Group, an alternative credit investment firm, completed the final close of its second captive collateralized loan obligation (CLO) equity fund, Crescent CLO Equity Funding II, with $232 million in commitments. The fund doubled the size of its predecessor, Crescent CLO Equity Funding I, which closed in 2018 with $103 million in commitments.
Institutional investors, including global insurance companies and pension funds, participated in the close. CLO Equity Funding II will focus primarily on investments in control positions of Crescent CLOs, while also providing flexibility to opportunistically invest in the debt of Crescent CLOs as well as third-party CLOs.
“Despite a competitive fundraising environment, this close reflects the continued evolution of our CLO issuance strategy and the growing conviction we are seeing from investors across the institutional landscape,” Nilesh Mandhare, managing director, head and portfolio manager for Crescent’s CLO issuance strategy, said. “We are excited to expand our relationships with existing and new clients as we enter the next phase of the strategy’s growth.”
John Fekete, managing director and head of tradeable credit at Crescent, added, “CLOs are an increasingly important component of our broader credit platform, bringing together our investment expertise, structuring capabilities and longstanding institutional relationships. The close underscores the depth of investor interest in the strategy and the strength of the platform we’ve built over decades.”
Jonathan Harari, global head of Crescent’s investor solutions group, said, “We are grateful for the investor support in the second vintage of our CLO series. We are proud to partner with both existing and new investors and remain focused on delivering differentiated opportunities across the credit markets.”