Churchill Asset Management LLC, an investment-specialist affiliate of Nuveen providing customized financing solutions to private equity firms and their portfolio companies across the capital structure, announced select investment and operating highlights for 2019.

With the recent integration of Nuveen’s private equity and junior capital group with Churchill’s award-winning senior lending business, Churchill’s investment teams closed and/or committed to more than $5 billion in new investments in 2019. Churchill’s senior lending business alone achieved its third consecutive record-breaking year of investment activity, closing and/or committing more than $3.3 billion, an increase of 27% from 2018. Of note, the combination tripled the firm’s committed capital, creating a $22 billion direct access platform that offers solutions across the capital structure in senior and junior debt, as well as private equity investments.

“With over $5 billion of annual investment activity in over 200 private capital investments, Churchill is very clearly one of the most active private investors in the middle market today,” said Ken Kencel, President and CEO of Churchill. “We approach the new year and new decade with optimism and an unrelenting focus on continuing to be a premier one-stop capital provider of choice to our private equity firm clients and a top private credit manager serving our institutional investors.”

2019 Highlights and Achievements

• Closed and/or committed over $5 billion across 115 new direct lending transactions and private equity co-investments, 72 add-on investments and 26 private equity fund investments. Churchill served as an agent on 55 of these investments, 80% of which were in a lead or co-lead capacity;
• Reviewed over 1,100 investment opportunities from over 260 private equity sponsors;
• Raised $2.8 billion of new committed capital from a diverse group of new and existing institutional investors across a variety of investment vehicles, including separately managed accounts, collateralized loan obligations and commingled funds.
• Named “2018 USA Lender of the Year” and “2019 Americas Lender of the Year” by the Global M&A Network and “2019 Lender Firm of the Year” by the M&A Advisor; ranked as top three “Most Active US Private Equity Middle Market Lenders” by Pitchbook1; and
• Added a significant number of new professionals across its origination, capital markets, underwriting, portfolio management and finance teams (including the Nuveen private equity and junior capital group) to address the significant investment activity and demand from investors and private equity sponsors.

Churchill offers broad experience in all aspects of the middle market financing business, including origination, structuring, underwriting, syndication, and deal monitoring and oversight. The firm is led by a senior management team with an average of more than 25 years of industry experience and has invested $31 billion in private capital across more than 830 transactions.