Private Credit’s Odyssey Home: How BDCs Turned Redemption Headlines Into A Bigger Financing Toolkit

Subscription Lines, Asset-Based Leverage, the Turn to CLOs, and the Rest of the Toolkit

I. Executive Summary

“The BDC borrower has come full circle: lenders and investors that pulled back are once again competing for a seat at the table, and the BDC of today has more financing tools available to it than at any point in the product's history. We are glad we never left.” - Dechert

Business development companies (BDCs) sit at the epicenter of the private credit growth story, and their financing structures have come full circle, evolving from relatively simple credit facilities into a genuine spectrum of bespoke leverage tools now attracting renewed capital from every corner of the market: subscription-style facilities keyed to investor commitments, net asset value and asset-based facilities based on the underlying loan portfolio, syndicated ABL facilities extended through special purpose vehicles, unsecured institutional notes placed privately under Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities