Americas Private Credit Review – Sept. 26, 2025

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Octus’ Americas Private Credit Review. This regular report encapsulates market information, data and commentary relevant to private debt investors and professionals in the United States. We include a curation of Octus’ enterprise journalism, with links to unverified third-party press reports and primary sources. Finally, the review includes a link to a deal origination pipeline for buyout and refinancing transactions.

This week, Octus published its latest installment of the Primary Issuance Tracker, which includes global loan and bond issuance data dating back to 2020 and through the year to date Sept. 25. In the latest week, Octus tracked $30.5 billion of new issuance across 36 deals, confirming a continued post-summer acceleration.
 

By Aaron Weitzman and Armie Margaret Lee

The final full week of the third quarter featured a slew of take-private deals including Thoma Bravo’s purchase of software company PROS Holdings Inc. for $1.4 billion and Patient Square Capital’s $2.6 billion acquisition of healthcare data analytics and advisory services firm Premier Inc.

As Octus reported this week, Oaktree Capital and GoldenTree Asset Management are co-leading a $1.67 billion debt financing package to back the Premier deal. The facility is priced at about SOFR+650 bps, as reported.

Market participants have seen the bid-ask spread that we’ve seen in the broader market tightening, according to Garrett Stephen, senior managing director and co-head of origination at First Eagle Alternative Credit’s direct lending team.

“That is enabling those better-performing companies to make the decision to go and launch their portfolio companies into the market. So we have seen a little bit more testing of the waters,” Stephen said.

In other take-private activity this week, Atlas Holdings announced that it is buying ODP Corp., parent of office products retailers Office Depot and OfficeMax, for about $1 billion. Elsewhere, Novacap agreed to acquire media measurement company Integral Ad Science for about $1.9 billion, and GTCR signed a deal to purchase Toronto-based dental practice network Dentalcorp Holdings Ltd. for about C$2.2 billion.

The deal origination pipeline has been more active in recent weeks, Stephen said, noting that he has seen an uptick in new deals, auction launches and first-round bids being submitted compared with the past several months.

“It feels like there’s more willingness to transact,” he said, adding, “The level of risk that folks are willing to take in the market is higher than it was over the past two years, and we have seen leverage levels start to return to [the] more normalized levels that we saw pre-Covid.”

For Thoma Bravo, the PROS purchase marks the fourth take-private transaction it has announced this year, following its deals to acquire restaurant software developer Olo for $2 billion, customer experience software company Verint Systems for $2 billion and human resources software maker Dayforce for $12.3 billion this summer.

“Take-privates are largely opportunistic, and I think that’s true across the market,” said Matt LoSardo, principal at Thoma Bravo. “As our founder, Orlando Bravo, likes to say: the best time to buy a software company is when you can.”

He noted that when analyzing software acquisition targets, Thoma Bravo focuses on companies with strong franchises that are contemplating new strategies such as operational changes or becoming “more aggressive” on M&A.

”Those are all things that are tough to execute on in the public markets and oftentimes can lead to take-private transactions for us,” he added.

For the Olo deal, which was announced in July and completed in September, Golub Capital led a $625 million private debt package with pricing of SOFR+450 bps, Octus reported.

Meanwhile, Thoma Bravo is financing its acquisition of Verint and its combination with portfolio company Calabrio with banks via a $2.675 billion leveraged loan, according to Octus’ reporting. The sponsor is also using broadly syndicated debt to finance its Dayforce buyout, according to an Octus report, which said Goldman Sachs is providing a $6 billion leveraged loan package.

LoSardo also noted that large companies are holding more discussions around divesting noncore assets, and that this is creating more buying opportunities for sponsors.

And this dynamic won’t be changing anytime soon.

“As we look out on just the rest of this year and going into next year, we see that outlook remaining the same,” he said. “We are seeing private activity, but you’re also seeing the IPO market open a bit again, and I think it’s a dynamic that’s good for investors, good for companies and a sign of a healthy market.”

In the consumer sector, take-private deals this year include 3G Capital’s purchase of shoe retailer Skechers for $9.4 billion and Sycamore Partners’ acquisition of retail pharmacy chain Walgreens Boots Alliance for about $10 billion.

Speaking in general, David Shiffman, who serves as the head of consumer retail at investment bank Solomon Partners, noted that retail “has been a sector that has struggled in terms of valuations over time,” adding that several companies that are “exceptional businesses” have seen their stocks trade poorly because of the tough environment retailers face.

These challenges include navigating tariffs, as well as supply-chain, inflation, geopolitical and monetary policy issues, Shiffman said. As a result, investment firms and other acquirers have made the determination that “there are some fantastic companies that would be great private companies,” he said.

The market sentiment seems to be full of hope, with belief that the fourth quarter will be full of activity that should carry into 2026.

Stephen said that the debt capital markets are wide open, with lenders willing to underwrite deals. This, coupled with the Fed lowering interest rates, is making buyers and sellers more confident in executing M&A.

“[Sellers] are more receptive to launching sales – they know that it will transact, so they aren’t as worried about whether deals will get done or not,” he said.
 

After dual tracking in the public and private markets, Patient Square Capital ultimately took the private credit route for its take-private acquisition of healthcare data analytics and advisory services firm Premier Inc.

Oaktree Capital and GoldenTree Asset Management are co-leading a $1.67 billion debt financing package to back the $2.6 billion deal, sources said. The financing includes a $1.45 billion senior secured first lien term loan and a $225 million revolving credit facility, according to the filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Octus subscribers can access and read a weekly summary of proprietary and aggregated intelligence articles covering upcoming and live buyout and refinancing deals via Octus’ Americas Deal Origination Pipeline.
 

 

• Octus: Investindustrial Prepping Approx. $3B Bid to Take TreeHouse Foods Private
• Octus: Accelya Firms Up Final Pricing on $600M Loan to Refi Private Debt; Order Book Oversubscribed
• Octus: Oaktree, GoldenTree to Co-Lead $1.67B Private Credit Financing for Premier’s $2.6B Take-Private by Patient Square
• Octus: TPG Twin Brook Provides Debt Financing to Back Longshore Capital Partners’ Investment in DemandTec
• Octus: TPG Twin Brook Provides Debt Financing for American Family Care Recap
• OctusPR: Hercules Capital Provides $200M Growth Financing to Tipalti

 

 

• BBG: Private Credit Giants Turn Debt Into Equity for Jumbo Deals
• BBG: Squarespace Reprices Loan to One of Lowest Private Debt Spreads
• BBG: Blackstone, Apollo and Others Sell Bonds Backed by Private Credit at Fastest Pace Ever
• BBG: Private Credit Facing ‘Clear Signs’ of Rising Stress, BofA Says
• BBG: Marathon’s Richards Sees Coming Bonanza for LBOs, Private Credit
• BBG: Wall Street Edges Out Private Credit on $20 Billion of M&A Debt
• BBG: Some PE Firms Doomed to Fail as High-Flying Industry Loses Its Way
• FT: Shadow banking’s real danger: death by a thousand paper cuts
   

 

• PR: Moelis Appoints Veteran M&A Banker Serge Tismen as a Managing Director
• BBG: 26North Hires Former Apollo Executive Manin for Capital Markets
   

 

• Octus: Buyout Firms Grapple With Fundraising Challenges After Market ‘Spoiled’ With Capital
• BBG: GA Credit’s Flagship Fund Hits $2.1 Billion First Close
• PR: Grays Peak Capital Launches $500 Million Private Credit Fund II Expanding Government and Defense Mission Critical Lending

Get in touch: [email protected]
OctusPR: Octus Press Release
Octus3P: Octus Third-Party News