One of the biggest comebacks on Wall Street has been about a decade in the making. In 2015, the four founders of Churchill Financial split with their private equity owner, Carlyle Group, and relaunched their business with investment advisor TIAA. Today, the firm known as Churchill Asset Management is one of the largest direct lenders with $50 billion in committed capital.
Churchill is a major player in private credit, one of the hottest sectors in alternative finance. Private credit refers to firms, which are not banks, that offer loans to businesses, typically small and medium-size companies. These companies are usually too big or risky for banks and too small for the public bond markets. Demand for these services has soared so much that BlackRock expects the global private debt market to hit $3.5 trillion in AUM by the end of 2028.
