Antares Capital exec projects $20 bln AUM by 2020

Antares Capital Co-Founder John Martin said he expected the middle-market-lending unit of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to increase its assets under management by about $8 billion, or 67 percent, to $20 billion by 2020.

The private-debt provider to private equity firms plans to boost its presence in healthcare lending and ramp up its $1.2 billion middle-market growth program with LStar Capital, the credit affiliate of Lone Star, for unitranche loans.

“There are lots of avenues to grow,” Martin said during his keynote appearance at the Buyouts PartnerConnect 2016 Midwest conference in Chicago on June 22.

Martin and Co-Founder David Brackett both hold the titles managing partner and co-CEO at Antares.

Since CPPIB closed its $12 billion purchase of Antares from General Electric Co in August, the lender has increased AUM by about $2 billion, Martin said.

The firm has been building its team as a stand-alone entity by adding Chief Financial Officer Barry Giarraputo, a veteran of 40 North Management as well as Apollo Global Management. It also hired a loan syndication, sales and trading team led by Kevin Burke, senior managing director, who is a veteran of GE Capital.

Healthcare lending was 20 percent of the Antares loan portfolio before GE bought Antares in 2005. Now that Antares is part of CPPIB, it’ll again look to grow the sector to about 20 percent of its loan portfolio, he said.

Antares also expects to increase the size of its average hold size. The firm declined to provide further details on its current median loan size.

Among its recent deals, Antares said on June 21 that it supported Clearlake Capital Group LP’s acquisition of Vision Solutions. The buyout deal tapped a $262.5 million senior secured unitranche credit facility from the middle-market growth program managed by Antares and LStar.

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Photo of John Martin courtesy of Antares