Shearman & Sterling was pleased to sponsor Refinitiv LPC’s Spring 2022 Loans Virtual Conference.

Shearman & Sterling Finance partners Gus Atiyah and Michael Chernick, as well as panelists Mark du Four from Crescent Capital, Alex Gorokhovskiy from Deutsche Bank and Neha Shah from Houlihan Lokey, hosted a panel discussion titled, “Current Trends in Direct Lending”.

Topics discussed included:

• State of the direct lending market – a look back at an unbelievable 2021, where the market is today and where will it be later in 2022.
• What is the outlook for direct lending to middle market companies across various industry sectors? To what extent are geopolitical and macroeconomic issues, including inflation and supply chain issues impacting performance of borrowers so far?
• Can direct lenders’ fundraising activity maintain the record pace in 2022?  Will the increase in the frequency of $1 billion direct lending financing continue?