The Covid-19 crisis has proved the strengths of our highly selective approach. We see growing opportunities as banks continue to retrench. ByMark Brenke, Head of Ardian Private Debt We implement a highly selective Ardian Private Debt IV, which closed its debt investment strategy focused on funding platform at €3 billion, was 65% deployed by high-quality borrowers with strong cash year-end, in line with our investment schedule. conversion in less cyclical sectors, such as Approximately 80% of the fund is invested in first providers of subscription-based software lien debt, with the remainder in the highest quality and other business services. The Covid-19 subordinated opportunities. Today, the European crisis has validated the strengths of this mid-cap debt market remains well covenanted and approach. our pipeline is robust. This has allowed us to achieve a modest uplift in loan pricing across recent deals Our portfolio performed resiliently coupled with more conservative leverage levels throughout 2020, in large part due to its focus on and strong loan documentation and, as a result, to businesses with strong recurring revenue streams generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for our LPs. in sectors including healthcare, IT and software services. All our borrowers continue to service their We believe that over the medium term the debts and to date we do not have any companies Covid-19 crisis will add further momentum to the in the portfolio with liquidity issues or requiring growth of the private debt market in Europe. Faced restructuring. with a growing burden of non-performing loans, European banks will continue to retrench, creating After a pause in deployment during Q2, as the scope for private debt providers to address we closely monitored our portfolio and the market more of the capital structure. The existing trend for situation, we returned to making investments from borrowers to agree senior facilities with non-bank Q3 and completed a total of 14 deals, including lenders will accelerate, taking players such as Ardian 6 add-on financings by the end of 2020. These deeper into traditional banking territory. This will covered the full range of our product offering undoubtedly benefit leading and well-differentiated – across first lien and subordinated debt facilities – private debt providers, especially with established and included transactions in France and the UK, track records including low levels of defaults and as well as the DACH and Benelux regions. losses through the market cycles, such as Ardian. 2020 ACTIVITY REPORT 101