NEW ZEALAND Trends and Developments Contributed by: Josh Cairns, Dominic Toomey, Stuart Evans and Matt Mazenier, Simpson Grierson
across all levels of the capital structure, including unitranche, holdco PIK, senior/mezz and special situations matters. Prior to returning to New Zealand in November 2024, he acted for many of Europe’s leading private credit funds. Recent highlights include advising Barings Global Private Finance on the unitranche financing of Abry Partners’ acquisition of Chambers and Partners, and advising Private Capital Group on the financing of the Carbn Group management buyout.
Simpson Grierson Private Bag 92518 Auckland 1141 New Zealand Tel: +64 9 358 2222 Email: info@simpsongrierson.com Web: www.simpsongrierson.com
Overview of the Market Private credit in New Zealand is evolving into an increasingly significant asset class as it continues to build from its modest foundations towards a more mature and diverse market. Whilst it remains at an early stage of development when compared to mar - kets such as Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, the sector has gained significant traction over the past decade despite the challenges posed by structural factors unique to New Zealand’s domestic economy. New Zealand’s non-bank lending landscape has been strongly influenced by the central role of real estate within the national economy. This has created a deep and well-established private credit ecosystem in real estate finance, particularly the funding of residential development, land banking and commercial construc - tion. A number of specialist domestic non-bank lend - ers, complemented by offshore asset managers with targeted Australasian credit strategies, have estab - lished meaningful and long-standing positions in this space. For many years, private credit in New Zealand has been closely associated with real estate lending,
providing a solid platform upon which the develop - ment of a broader private credit market can occur. Beyond real estate finance, the private credit market is increasingly active, even as traditional corporate lending remains predominantly served by the major domestic banks. New Zealand’s Big Four banks con - tinue to maintain strong market share across bor - rowers ranging from SMEs to listed corporates and institutional credits (in the latter cases, often as part of a club or syndicated bank financing alongside off - shore banks). Although this has meant that deal flow for private credit funds in the general corporate and cashflow-lending space has grown more gradually, interest and participation in non-property-focused private credit solutions is steadily expanding. The small scale of the New Zealand market (both in terms of borrower base and average enterprise value) has contributed to its unique opportunity set. Transac - tions which, in larger markets, would be well-serviced by mid-market private credit funds, often fall below the minimum ticket size required by offshore asset managers to justify origination and due diligence costs. Nevertheless, large offshore credit funds have
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