Bain Capital has partnered with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. to launch a new European lending platform with up to €1.5bn available for corporate borrowers across Europe and the UK, according to Bloomberg.

The vehicle will focus on opportunities in the broadly syndicated loan market and aims to finance private equity-backed companies. The platform will be funded through SMBC’s balance sheet and equity from Bain Capital’s special situations franchise, with no new capital raised. Both firms will share governance rights.

Angelo Rufino, partner and head of Bain’s corporate special situations team in Europe, said the model could be replicated in other geographies. Gauthier Reymondier, who leads Bain’s European credit business, said typical deal sizes would exceed €500m term loan B, with capacity to scale as the pipeline develops and market demand increases.

Banks and private credit firms have increasingly worked together as sponsors seek deeper pools of capital. SMBC already operates a lending partnership with Park Square Capital, which helped support a €3.4bn direct-lending vehicle closed last year. Citigroup and Apollo agreed a similar $25bn private credit partnership in 2023.

Rufino said public and private markets are converging, with new products emerging that blur the lines between the two.

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