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 13 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, 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 $11.5 billion.
Senior investment professionals have an average of 29 years of experience.
PennantPark is fortunate to have a highly diversified investor base.
Now, 13 years into executing its core strategy, PennantPark continues to enjoy a reputation for excellence in middle market lending.
In August 2020, PennantPark forms a joint venture with Pantheon, a leading global alternative private markets investor. The new joint venture, PennantPark Senior Loan Fund I, LLC (“PSLF”), expands our private credit platform and affirms our long-term strategy of providing an array of investment solutions to institutional investors, amid a period of pervasive uncertainty in global markets.
In September 2019, PennantPark issues its inaugural CLO, PennantPark CLO I. The $301.4 million vehicle is backed by a diversified portfolio of middle market loans, and has a four-year re-investment period.
The new PennantPark Senior Credit Funds (levered and unlevered) are our third and fourth vehicles following our Senior Debt strategy. The funds focus principally on directly originated, sponsor-backed, senior secured loans at the top of the capital structure.
This is our fifth vehicle in the Opportunistic Credit Strategy, and launches on behalf of a top-10 global alternative asset manager with $190 million of investable capital.
PCOF III is our fourth vehicle in the Opportunistic Credit strategy, designed for private and institutional investors seeking to leverage our unique expertise, tested leadership, and proven track record in middle market credit.
PFLT and Kemper doubles the size of their joint venture, PSSL, bringing the vehicle’s total buying power to $630mm.
Our team grows to 37 employees as our offices expand from NYC to include Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles.
We convert PCOF from a short-term hedge fund structure to a long-term drawdown structure.
By Q2 of 2013, PennantPark has deployed $2.5bn of capital to 270 companies. Our ranks grow to 26 staff members.
In 2012, we establish 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 launch PFLT to provide investors with expanded access to first lien debt.
In the months leading up to the global financial crisis, we remain true to our rigorous underwriting strategy, with emphasis on strong financial covenants and low leverage. This cautious approach culminates in a self-imposed hold on new investments from September ’08 through March ’09. We succeed in limiting losses by excellent underwriting prior to September ’08. After September ’08, we spend six months paying careful attention to the effects of the recession on our portfolio companies. By March of ’09, we are confident in our assessment of the recession’s effects, and we resume investing, doubling our AUM by Q4 of ’09.
PNNT is our first investment vehicle.
PennantPark is founded in 2007 by Art Penn and a close-knit team of middle market direct lending experts. Our vision for founding PennantPark is 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.