Cerberus Capital Management announced that its middle-market direct lending platform, Cerberus Business Finance, completed the final close of its latest flagship fund, Cerberus Levered Loan Opportunities Fund IV (“Fund IV”). Fund IV closed with $2.4 billion of equity commitments and, in total, Cerberus Business Finance raised more than $4.4 billion of equity commitments for its strategy across Fund IV and separately managed accounts. Together with additional fund-level leverage commitments, this raise brings Cerberus Business Finance’s total capital to over $20 billion.
Cerberus Business Finance’s latest fundraise represents the continuation of its loan opportunities strategy, which seeks to provide financing solutions to U.S. middle-market companies across diverse industries. The Fund IV and additional commitments received are from new and existing investors that include government and corporate pensions, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, insurance companies, banks, asset managers, family offices, foundations, non-profit organizations, fund of funds, and high net worth individuals.
“The close of Fund IV is the latest milestone for our direct lending platform,” commented Daniel Wolf, Chief Executive Officer of Cerberus Business Finance. “For a quarter of a century, we have provided premier financial sponsors and leading businesses with one-stop financing solutions. Our long-term clients are able to turn to us for certainty of transaction closure and terms, flexible capital structures, and speed of execution.”
Keith Read, President of Cerberus Business Finance, added, “Our limited partners and leverage providers have experienced our consistent approach across business cycles and periods of market volatility and dislocation. We greatly appreciate their continued confidence in us and our long-tenured team as we seek to build on our track record of success.”
Cerberus Business Finance currently manages over $16 billion of loans across more than 140 U.S. middle-market companies. As one of the most experienced direct lenders, the platform completed in 2019 and 2020 alone over 150 financing transactions totaling approximately $12.7 billion of credit facilities, the vast majority of which were in sponsor-led transactions as the lead agent.
Beginning in 1995 with predecessor entities, Cerberus Business Finance has deployed over $35 billion of capital to help middle-market companies grow and succeed in a wide variety of business contexts and industries. In aggregate, it has provided innovative lending solutions to more than 250 financial sponsors, the majority of which are repeat clients, and completed loan transactions with over 1,000 borrowers.