Our firm was established to provide investors with access to middle market credit. By design—and to set ourselves apart— we are an independent manager. From early in this endeavor, we enjoyed a distinct advantage in that our senior professionals brought tremendous depth of experience in middle market credit. Prior to PennantPark, our senior team members worked alongside one another within various predecessor firms dating back to the mid-1990s. Now, over 15 years since PennantPark’s founding, we continue to benefit from our senior leadership team’s extensive experience and long history of collaboration across multiple economic and credit cycles
We focus on companies that are owned by established middle market private equity sponsors with a track record of supporting their portfolio companies. This practice is designed to enhance alignment of interests between lenders and equity investors.
Founded in 2007, PennantPark has offices in Miami (headquarters), New York, Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles.
Our core focus is lending to middle market private equity sponsor-backed companies with $10 – $50 million of EBITDA.
Since inception, PennantPark has invested over $17.4 billion.
Senior investment professionals have an average of 25 years of experience.
PennantPark is fortunate to have a highly diversified investor base.
Now, 15 years into executing its core strategy, PennantPark continues to enjoy a reputation for excellence in middle market lending.
PCOF IV represents another meaningful step forward in the growth of the firm’s middle market private credit investment business. PennantPark welcomes a number of new limited partners and further diversifies its capital base, building on its reputation as a trusted partner to investors, sponsors, and borrowers.
PennantPark moved its headquarters to Miami as headcount grew to over 50 employees. The new office further expands the firm’s geographic footprint and origination capabilities.
In Q2 and Q4 2021, PennantPark successfully closes PennantPark Senior Credit Funds (“PSCF-Lev” & “PSCF”, respectively). Since the initial closes in Q2 2019, PennantPark has added over $580 million of investment capacity across both PSCF and PSCF-Lev.
In November 2021, PennantPark closes a $300.8 million CLO. The debt issued in the CLO has a three-year reinvestment period and an 11-year final maturity
In January 2021, PennantPark completes its second CLO. The $300.7 million vehicle is backed by a diversified portfolio of middle market loans, and has a three-year re-investment period and an 11-year final maturity.
In December 2020, PennantPark successfully closes PennantPark Credit Opportunities Fund III (“PCOF III”), marking another meaningful step forward in the growth of the firm’s middle market private credit investment business.
In August 2020, PennantPark formed a joint venture with Pantheon, a leading global alternative private markets investor. The new joint venture, PennantPark Senior Loan Fund, LLC (“PSLF”), expanded our private credit platform and affirmed our long-term strategy of providing an array of investment solutions to institutional investors.
Similar to the GFC, our portfolio was well-positioned going into the COVID-19 pandemic due
to our conservative investment philosophy. PennantPark funds benefitted from the avoidance of industries most impacted by COVID-19, deep domain expertise across our industries of focus, an ability to navigate through uncertain market conditions, and a successful equity co-investment
program.
PennantPark CLO I was issued in September 2019. The $301.4 million vehicle was backed by a diversified portfolio of middle market loans. PennantPark has since issued five middle market CLOs totaling more than $1.5 billion.
PSCF was launched as our first private fund offering the Senior Debt investment strategy. The fund was offered in both unlevered and levered formats. The fund principally targets directly originated, sponsor-backed, senior secured loans at the top of the capital structure.
Our fifth vehicle in the Opportunistic Credit strategy launched on behalf of a top-10 global alternative asset manager. The SMA opens with $190 million of investable capital.
PCOF III was launched as the third fund in the PCOF family pursuing our Opportunistic Credit strategy. PennantPark welcomed a new slate of institutional limited partners into its private funds.
PFLT and Kemper doubled the size of their joint venture, PSSL, bringing the vehicle’s total buying power to $630 million.
PennantPark purposefully expanded its senior debt capabilities after more than a decade of investing in the asset class. In 2017, PFLT formed a joint venture with Kemper Corporation called PennantPark Senior Secured Loan Fund (PSSL) which added $300 million of buying power to PFLT.
Our team grew to 37 employees as our offices expanded from New York to include Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles.
We converted PCOF from a short-term hedge fund structure to a long-term drawdown structure called PCOF II. PennantPark’s private fund offerings continued to expand in the following years.
By mid-2013, PennantPark had deployed $2.5 billion of capital to 270 companies. Our ranks grew to 26 professionals.
PCOF was designed for individual and institutional investors seeking to leverage PennantPark’s unique combination of expertise, tested leadership, and proven track record in middle market direct lending.
We launched PFLT to provide investors with expanded access to our Senior Debt investment strategy, which is focused on first lien senior secured loans and corresponding equity co-investments. PFLT is structured as a publicly-traded BDC.
In the months leading up to the Global Financial Crisis (“GFC”), we remained true to our rigorous underwriting strategy with emphasis on cash flowing companies, low leverage, and strong financial covenants. This cautious approach culminated in a self-imposed hold on new investments beginning September 2008. We spent six months paying careful attention to the effects of the recession on our portfolio companies and succeeded in limiting losses. By March 2009, we resumed investing and quickly doubled our AUM by the end of 2009.
PNNT was launched as the firm’s first investment vehicle. The fund is structured as a business development company (“BDC”) and is currently listed on the New York Stock Exchange. PNNT pursues our Opportunistic Credit investment strategy which targets first lien senior secured loans, second lien loans, mezzanine debt, and associated equity co-investments.
PennantPark was founded in 2007 by Art Penn and a close-knit team of middle market credit experts. Our vision was to create an independent middle market credit provider, free of conflicts and affiliations, to serve as a trusted partner for our investors as well as middle market private equity sponsors and companies.
