KBRA Analytics, an affiliate of Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA), has acquired digital-information service Direct Lending Deals, which offers investors and loan originators coverage of deal data, news and analysis in the direct-lending sector.
The acquisition will allow KBRA Analytics to offer its customers insights into the fast-growing $1 trillion direct-lending sector. DLD provides analysis, data insights, news and industry rankings focused on the lower and middle private-equity financing spaces along with coverage of private jumbo loans of $1 billion or more.
KBRA Analytics’ acquisition of DLD closed quietly on Aug. 31 for an undisclosed sum, KBRA announced.
DLD was founded by Kelly Thompson, who has been covering the leverage-finance market for two decades and created a comprehensive business-development company (BDC) database. Under her direction, DLD has cultivated long-term relationships with key investors and originators to provide news and analysis across financing structures, BDCs, and the movers and shakers in the private-credit sector.
“I’m excited to take DLD to the next level with the team at KBRA Analytics,” Thompson said. “We share the same vision for growth opportunities in private credit.”
Chicago-based DLD, founded in 2019, also recently hired Rachel McGovern to serve as editor and European bureau chief, based in Dublin, Ireland. She is launching coverage of the European direct-lending market, “which is tracking the same growth trajectory as the U.S. market,” KBRA’s announcement of the deal states.
“Given the expansion of the private-credit space, DLD and KBRA Analytics are a perfect team to provide the market with superior data and news coverage,” said Jim Nadler, KBRA’s president and CEO. “We will leverage Kelly Thompson’s deep knowledge to continue providing the market with unparalleled services.”
DLD has now become part of the KBRA Analytics platform, which offers its clients high-quality data and advanced analytics on financial institutions as well as the corporate- and structured-finance markets, including the residential mortgage-backed securities sector. Its parent company, KBRA, is backed by Parthenon Capital, which purchased the bond-rating agency in late 2021 for $900 million.
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