PGIM takes full Deerpath control as credit consolidation accelerates

PGIM agreed in July to acquire the remaining 25 percent of Deerpath Capital, taking full ownership of a credit manager it had part-owned since buying an initial 75 percent stake. The transaction is part of a private credit M&A wave that Alternative Credit Investor has tracked through 2026. Despite negative headlines about the future of the asset class, the outlet reports, the deals have not been derailed.

The year opened with CVC buying global credit manager Marathon for $1.2 billion. The combination lifts CVC Credit's fee-paying assets under management to roughly €61 billion and extends the firm's push into the United States. The fee-paying figure is the one that matters: it counts only assets generating management fees, the recurring revenue that makes a credit platform worth buying. In February, Nuveen agreed to acquire UK-based Schroders for £9.9 billion, creating a private markets franchise worth $414 billion; the combined entity ranks among the world's largest asset managers, with nearly $2.5 trillion in assets under management. Bridgepoint announced in June that it will buy Kayne Anderson Real Estate for around $1.4 billion, increasing its exposure to US real estate. The combined business will manage about $117 billion across private equity, credit, infrastructure, real estate and secondaries.

Two of the year's deals stand out for moving from minority ownership to total control. Sun Life, the Canadian insurer, paid C$829 million in March for the 49 percent of Crescent Capital Group it did not already own. That followed a 51 percent stake the insurer acquired in 2021 for C$450 million. Crescent, an alternative credit manager, oversees about $50 billion. PGIM's Deerpath deal follows the same shape: take a majority stake first, then buy out the balance.

The pattern makes sense for buyers who want the whole loan book and the team responsible for it, without negotiating shared governance indefinitely. It also lets the acquirer test the relationship before writing the final check. The minority-to-majority route is a lower-risk way to arrive at full ownership.

Lazard announced in April the $575 million acquisition of Campbell Lutyens, the global private markets adviser, folding it into its existing private capital advisory platform to form Lazard CL. Lazard said the combined businesses are expected to generate around $500 million in estimated revenue by 2027. In May, La Banque Postale said it will merge two asset managers into LFDE Investment Managers, a €72 billion platform built around private markets, combining LBP AM's private markets and broader asset management capabilities with the equity expertise of La Financière de l'Échiquier. Both transactions are smaller than the lender deals, but they show the consolidation touching the parts of the private markets industry that connect investors with private companies.

Behind each deal is a calculation about what private credit will look like after the current round of negative headlines. The buyers are large asset managers and insurers putting capital behind platforms they can control. The likely result of the 2026 M&A calendar is a smaller group of larger credit platforms, each combining origination teams and portfolios under one owner. The negative headlines may have accelerated that outcome: when the story is about the asset class's future, owning the platform outright is more reassuring than sharing it with a partner.

For independent credit firms still outside these combinations, the year's M&A leaves a straightforward question: whether a full buyout offers a better exit than continuing alone, or whether a minority partner will accept the risk of staying in for the long run.