Our Group Head of Direct Lending, Nik Singhal, shared his perspective on the direct lending market so far this year for the latest edition of Octus’ Americas Private Credit Review, discussing deployment activity in Q1 and providing an early look at how tariffs could impact the direct lending space.
Highlights from Nik:
- At NXT Capital LLC, “we would expect our deployment will probably be a little bit slower than ideal” in the second quarter because of the tariff uncertainty, said Nik Singhal, managing director and group head of direct lending at ORIX Corporation USA, which owns NXT. Singhal said he expects portfolio add-on activity to offset some of the M&A softness.
- NXT does not have a lot of direct exposure to tariffs in its portfolio, said Singhal. However, if consumer sentiment dips, corporate spending slows down and the economy goes into recession, all sectors “will likely be impacted,” he said.