The Carlyle Group closed its opportunistic credit fund, Carlyle Credit Opportunities Fund III, at $5.7 billion, marking its largest credit fundraising to date, according to a news release.
With leverage, the fund has $7.1 billion in capital to put to work, a spokesperson confirmed. Carlyle noted that commitments to the fund came from global institutions, including new and existing investors.
The $19.4 billion Ohio School Employees Retirement System, Columbus, is an investor in the fund approving a $100 million commitment in March.
“This fundraise is a milestone for our global credit platform and a testament to the caliber of our opportunistic credit team,” said Mark Jenkins, head of global credit at Carlyle, in the news release. “Private credit continues to play a vital role in the global capital markets, and we see tremendous opportunity to put capital to work in this asset class.”
CCOF III has so far invested or committed more than $2.4 billion in 25 investments in North American, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region across the capital structure to family, founder, management-owned companies, sponsor-backed companies and special situations, according to the release.
CCOF III is larger than its predecessor fund, which closed at $4.6 billion, and bumps up capital managed in Carlyle’s opportunistic credit strategy to about $17 billion.
Private credit fundraising picked up in third quarter this year and 2024 marks some of the largest fund closings, including a $33.6 billion fund from Ares Management and a $21.1 billion fund from HPS Investment Partners.
Carlyle has been focused on building out its credit business. Speaking at this week's Goldman Sachs Financial Services conference in New York, CEO Harvey M. Schwartz said, "We are seeing this next evolution in credit" with "lines blurring" in private credit and private investment-grade credit. Schwartz said it is worth discussing the "provision of capital" in the industry.
Carlyle’s global credit platform had $194 billion in assets under management as of Sept. 30. Carlyle had $447 billion in total AUM as of Sept. 30.
