Our firm was established to provide investors with access to middle market direct lending. 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 direct lending. Prior to PennantPark, our senior team members worked alongside one another within various predecessor firms dating back to the mid-1990s. Now, over 11 years since PennantPark’s founding, we have the same senior leadership team intact and continue to benefit from their extensive record of experience and teamwork.
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 is headquartered in New York with offices in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and London.
Our core focus is directly originated loans to middle market private equity sponsor-backed companies with $10 – $50 million of EBITDA.
Since inception, PennantPark has invested over $8 billion.
Senior investment professionals have an average of 27 years of experience.
PennantPark is fortunate to have a highly diversified investor base.
Now, 11 years into executing its core strategy, PennantPark continues to enjoy a reputation for excellence in middle market lending.
PFLT and Kemper doubled the size of their joint venture, PSSL, bringing the vehicle’s total buying power to $630mm.
Our team grew to 37 employees as our offices expanded from NYC and London to include Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles.
We converted PCOF from a short-term hedge fund structure to a long-term drawdown structure.
We opened our second office in London to expand our origination and fundraising capabilities in Europe.
By Q2 of 2013, PennantPark had deployed $2.5bn of capital to 270 companies. Our ranks grew to 26 staff members.
In 2012, we established the PennantPark Credit Opportunities Fund, a vehicle designed for private and institutional investors seeking to leverage our unique expertise, tested leadership, and proven track record in middle market direct lending.
We launched PFLT to provide investors with expanded access to first lien debt.
In the months leading up to the global financial crisis, we remained true to our rigorous underwriting strategy, with emphasis on strong financial covenants and low leverage. This cautious approach culminated in a self-imposed hold on new investments from September ’08 through March ’09. We succeeded in limiting losses by excellent underwriting prior to September ’08. After September ’08, we spent six months paying careful attention to the effects of the recession on our portfolio companies. By March of ’09, we were confident in our assessment of the recession’s effects, and we resumed investing, doubling our AUM by Q4 of ’09.
PNNT was our first investment vehicle.
PennantPark was founded in 2007 by Art Penn and a close-knit team of middle market direct lending experts. Our vision for founding PennantPark was to create an independent credit provider, free of conflicts and affiliations, which could become a trusted partner for middle market private equity sponsors and companies.
