Blue Owl to purchase $2bn of Upstart loans

Blue Owl Capital has agreed to purchase as much as $2bn (£1.5bn) of shopper loans from fintech lender Upstart over the following 18 months, because it expands within the asset-based finance house.

The deal contains an preliminary acquisition of a $290m private mortgage portfolio, which closed in September.

The transaction was structured and closed by Atalaya Capital Administration, another credit score supervisor primarily centered on asset-based finance that Blue Owl acquired earlier this yr.

Atlas SP Companions, the warehouse finance and securitised merchandise enterprise majority owned by Apollo funds, will present the debt financing for the mortgage purchases.

Learn extra: Personal debt buyers eye asset-backed lending over the following yr

“We’re thrilled to companion with the Blue Owl group in considered one of our largest buy commitments ever,” mentioned Sanjay Datta, chief monetary officer of Upstart. “Blue Owl’s formidable imaginative and prescient and long-term focus will speed up our efforts to broaden entry to inexpensive credit score.”

The asset-backed finance (ABF) market is attracting consideration from different asset managers after business banks scaled again their actions within the house.

Earlier this yr, Oaktree famous that “ABF has been reworked from a low-return, bank-dominated asset class right into a extremely enticing space of alternative for different lenders”.

BlackRock has additionally seen alternatives on this space. ABF is estimated to be a $5.5tn market within the US. Round a 3rd of this market is financed by non-bank lenders, in line with Oliver Wyman knowledge cited by BlackRock, with the personal credit score business’s present market share estimated to be $200-$300bn.

“Whereas the idea of diversification away from the financial institution lending channel isn’t new, over the previous a number of months, market members have centered on the potential for personal credit score lenders to play an elevated function in ABF, doubtlessly filling ‘financing gaps’ from some banks’ extra selective urge for food to lend (as they might look to optimize the capital effectivity of their stability sheets),” BlackRock’s evaluation mentioned.