Houlihan Lokey announced the formation of HL Finance, LLC (HL Finance) to arrange senior secured leveraged loans for financial sponsor-backed, privately-held, and public corporate entities.

HL Finance will act as arranger on syndicated loan transactions and has entered into an agreement with HPS Investment Partners, as the initial strategic investor, to participate in the transactions and provide underwriting commitments of up to $1 billion.

Houlihan Lokey, through this platform, will participate in both committed and best efforts transactions across a broad range of financings, including leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, dividend recapitalizations, and refinancings, primarily for borrowers with EBITDA and capital needs in excess of $50 million and $250 million, respectively. 

“The creation of a syndicated leveraged finance platform leverages our core advisory capabilities and relationships and combines them with the credit underwriting and portfolio management strengths of market-leading asset managers. Importantly, this initiative is driven by significant client demand and is consistent with our advisory business model,” said Scott Beiser, CEO of Houlihan Lokey.

Syndicated leveraged finance is highly complementary with and will operate as part of Houlihan Lokey’s Capital Markets Group, led by Global Co-Heads Chris Dunlop, Anthony Martino, and Gregg Newman. In anticipation of launching this initiative, the Group has added significant senior talent over the past year, including Matthew Lyness and Ed Ribaudo. Mr. Lyness and Mr. Ribaudo were both formerly Managing Directors with GE Antares in New York, serving as client team leaders with structuring and syndication responsibilities, respectively.

The Capital Markets Group, which consists of 35 professionals based in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, London, Madrid, Milan, and Sydney, through its private capital solutions and capital markets advisory offerings, raised more than $12.5 billion across approximately 40 transactions during Houlihan Lokey’s fiscal year ended March 31, 2018.

“We are very excited about the continued growth of our Capital Markets Group and believe this new capability, combined with our deep expertise across industry sectors, substantially increases the opportunity to support our clients’ needs,” said Scott Adelson, Co-President and Co-Head of Corporate Finance.