Five things we learned from the 2023 Debt Fund 40

1 AXA IM Alts keeps the crown

AXA IM Alts retained the top slot in this year’s Debt Fund 40 ranking as it raised $14.8 billion of capital over the past five years. PGIM Real Estate retained second place, but Cerberus Capital moved up to third. Last year, Brookfield was the third-most active debt fundraiser.

2 The $5bn club

The 10 most active managers raised more than $80 billion in total over the past five years, all crossing the $5 billion threshold. The next group of 10 also demonstrated a notably active fundraising period, all raising over $3 billion during the same period.

3 Debt fund powerhouse

North America continues to be the most active region in which debt capital is being raised, with strong showings from cities which include New York, Los Angeles, Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, Toronto, Chicago and Vancouver – all home to a number of major institutional investors.

4 Global debt dominance

Debt saw significant global dominance in 2022 even as equity managers saw less robust capital flows. Globally, debt managers raised $267 billion for the five years ending in 2022, a 19 percent increase from the previous period. This activity was driven in part by new entrants like Pretium Partners, which made its debut with $5.7 billion of capital raised.

5 The room where it happens

New York continues to be an epicenter for debt, with managers in the city raising over $25 billion more than the next closest city for debt investment. Rounding out the top five were Los Angeles, Paris, Miami and Madison, New Jersey. Debt managers in New York accounted for about 24.7 percent of all capital raised for the strategy over the past five years.