Europe's private credit market splits as prized assets take the spoils
Key takeaways
- At one end sits a narrow band of prized assets drawing fierce competition from funds and lenders, while at the other there’s a growing backlog of companies struggling to find a buyer.
- “It’s a bifurcated market,” confirms Matthias Weissinger, partner at McDermott Will & Emery. “There are very good assets that everyone is running towards, and that’s driving down pricing and terms in the mid-market.
- Meanwhile, the deals in-between these two groupings — which are deemed to be merely acceptable — are often seeing sales processes stall, market participants said.
Europe's private credit market splits as prized assets take the spoils Francesca Ficai, Nishant Sharma Tue, June 23, 2026 at 8:04 PM GMT+7 7 min read Europe’s private capital asset class has split into two markets that barely resemble each other, said advisers and fund managers at the Super Return International event in Berlin earlier in June. At one end sits a narrow band of prized assets drawing fierce competition from funds and lenders, while at the other there’s a growing backlog of companies struggling to find a buyer.
“It’s a bifurcated market,” confirms Matthias Weissinger, partner at McDermott Will & Emery. “There are very good assets that everyone is running towards, and that’s driving down pricing and terms in the mid-market. Then there’s a bunch of stuff that no one really wants to touch.”
Meanwhile, the deals in-between these two groupings — which are deemed to be merely acceptable — are often seeing sales processes stall, market participants said. Adding to the complexity, buyers are also grappling with AI disruption and geopolitical uncertainty, which has increased the potential for valuation mismatches.