Castlelake announced that it completed the final closing of Castlelake Income Opportunities II, L.P. (“CIO II” or the “Fund”), with approximately $782 million in capital commitments. CIO II, an asset-based private credit product, is the successor to Castlelake’s 2018 vintage fund, which raised $456 million and closed in 2020. CIO II has already deployed $333 million across several attractive investment opportunities spanning real assets, specialty finance and aviation.
“We are grateful for the support the Fund received from both new and existing Castlelake investors around the world and believe the significant interweave is a testament to Castlelake’s success in supporting sophisticated global institutions in achieving their investment goals,” said Rory O’Neill, Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Castlelake. “We believe that our extensive experience investing across economic cycles demonstrates our ability to be a capable steward of our limited partners’ capital across market environments and we are honored to have the opportunity to continue building on that legacy with this Fund.”
Expanding upon the strategy successfully deployed in the 2018 vintage fund, CIO II will seek to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns with less correlation to and less volatility than the public markets by investing in areas where Castlelake believes it has deep expertise and competitive advantages. The Fund is a private credit product focused on asset-based investments, including stabilized commercial real estate in Europe and transitional bridge lending in North America, specialty finance solutions for small and medium-sized businesses and consumer finance providers, and secured aviation related lending.
“As traditional capital providers appear to continue to retreat from many markets where we have long focused and users of capital have an increased need for bespoke solutions to navigate volatile conditions, we see an especially compelling long-term opportunity for Castlelake to deploy capital on behalf of our investors,” said Evan Carruthers, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Castlelake. “We look forward to leveraging our analytical, sourcing and operating capabilities, as well as our deep relationships across our global network, to the benefit of our clients and stakeholders.”
Since Castlelake’s inception in 2005, the firm has focused on investments in what is views as undercapitalized or inefficient private markets, and has invested approximately $17 billion in aviation opportunities, $14 billion in real assets and $4 billion in specialty finance.