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Blue Owl and other managers seek organic private credit growth in Europe
by Lisa Lee
Memo to US investment firms seeking to attract European capital: you may want to set up shop here. As a case in point, Blue Owl Capital recently signed a 10-year lease and moved into its first permanent space in London. The private credit specialist also opened an office in Frankfurt, and is now looking to expand to Milan, sources said.
“We’ve been making significant investments in Europe on the hiring front in order to grow Blue Owl’s footprint in the region,” said Mike Burns, managing director at Blue Owl in London. “We’re building out all the infrastructure that we believe you need to be successful in Europe.”
One of the biggest names in the private credit space, Blue Owl has so far focused its attention on the US market.
Back in the day, a firm like Blue Owl, with more than USD 192bn in AUM, might have been expected to make a big acquisition and shake up the European private market.
Blue Owl: the firm has taken a 10-year lease on a space in London
But European private credit hasn’t proved an easy M&A target for US titans. While Nuveen managed to nab European private credit pioneer Arcmont Asset Management, others have been foiled. US hopefuls, including Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries, came away empty-handed in their pursuit of London-based private credit specialist Hayfin Capital Management.
Blue Owl is now looking to launch a European direct lending business and is interviewing deal-makers for the London office.
Others, such as US-based peer Golub Capital, have increased their direct lending capabilities organically in the region, Creditflux previously reported. Antares has started hiring on the fundraising side and mulling the idea of originating deals in Europe, according to sources.
Any hire at Blue Owl will join a fast-expanding team in London. Burns said that when he joined Blue Owl in March 2023, there were fewer than 20 people — by year end, that figure will be close to 50. The plan is to expand in size and scale, and to have a presence locally in order to build long-term partnerships that understand all the different regions in Europe.
“The goal here is to build a significant business in Europe, both on the investment side as well as the distribution side — something that perhaps opens up new markets in ways that just weren’t accessible to us a few years ago,” said Burns.
