Guest: Thomas Grau, Head of Acquisition Finance Germany; Amber Glaeser, Director; Ivan Seneka, Director – at Bank of Ireland

Topic: Mid-Market LBOs & the Blurring Line Between Funds and Banks / Finding Growth Together: When Banks and Funds Team Up

A Bank Building Its Own Private Credit Partnership: Bank of Ireland on Its First Year With Kennedy Lewis

Bank of Ireland’s Acquisition Finance team has spent the past year testing something few banks fully commit to: a direct, structured partnership with a private credit manager to commit large senior secured loans out of one hand. Announced in March, the tie-up with Kennedy Lewis targets over €2 billion for European mid-market buyouts, and the platform has already closed four transactions, three add-ons and one fully bilateral deal.

We spoke with Thomas Grau (Head of Acquisition Finance Germany), Amber Glaeser (Director) and Ivan Seneka (Director) about how the partnership works in practice, where the real competition sits, and where the market goes from here.

Thomas, you’ve been with Bank of Ireland since 2008, heading the German Acquisition Finance team since 2012. Ivan joined in 2010, and Amber in 2023 as a Director – a lot of experience between the three of you. How do you see the German leveraged finance market developing today?

Thomas: It’s a very attractive market, underpinned by a broad set of players, so it’s always evolving. We’re seeing M&A resistance driven by global uncertainty, weak GDP growth and AI as either a disruptor or an enabler. But LBO financing remains an unavoidable discipline in corporate finance, and senior debt is a good financing solution also in the future.

Amber: There’s significant capital chasing a limited pool of high-quality assets, on both the sponsor and lending side. Given how long many PE-owned assets have been held, we’d expect exit and refinancing activity to pick up, though sentiment has turned more cautious in some sectors, software being one.

Ivan: What’s underappreciated is that although we’re arguably in a crisis or economic turmoil, the transaction market isn’t behaving like we are. In previous downturns, you’d see players go risk-off. That’s not happening now. Deal volume is there, even if quality is volatile, and nobody, banks or funds, is really pulling back.

In March, Bank of Ireland announced a strategic partnership with Kennedy Lewis to jointly deploy over €2bn in senior secured loans for European mid-market buyouts. What was the thinking behind it, how does it work in practice, and how does it broaden your team’s product range?

Thomas: This builds on a long road: BOI carried mezz, second lien and small equity positions before the financial crisis, and later added a unitranche sub-bucket alongside super senior RCF and first-out. Finding the right partner for a bigger, dedicated senior bucket took time, we needed the right risk appetite and an entrepreneurial mindset. With Kennedy Lewis, that fit clicked: by the end of August we’d already closed four transactions, three add-ons and one fully bilateral deal, and the experience has been very positive.

Ivan: Having the firepower to write a large senior ticket alone is an advantage, but it doesn’t guarantee the deal, you’re still competing against unitranche and bank club deals. It gives us speed, since there’s no club to assemble, lower legal cost, and less management time fielding multiple lenders. Getting that operating model established on our own terms, within the credit box we’d defined, was genuinely the hard part.

Amber: BOI originates and stays the sponsor’s single point of contact throughout the holding period. Our credit process and Kennedy Lewis’s run in parallel so nothing loses time, and BOI handles the legal workstream. That upfront work is why it ran smoothly from day one, though as our first fully bilateral deal, there were still lessons learned for next time.

While banks are partnering with private credit managers, those same managers have increasingly moved into territory that used to be exclusively banks’ – senior debt, club-style structures. What’s your take on this development?

Ivan: A lot of traditional bank competitors have pulled back or exited the mid-cap over the last decade. For senior structures, we don’t see private credit managers as competitors so much as collaborators, they are happy to form senior clubs or often want to participate if we underwrite. With this partnership behind us, we’ve got an even stronger case for sponsors to choose us. Our real competition is still unitranche, and it’s increasingly fought on leverage and pricing.

Amber: Pricing is the most recent shift. It’s always been a competition on leverage against unitranche, but with pricing in some cases coming down toward 475bps, the differential to bank debt isn’t what it used to be.

Thomas: The market’s still attractive, if not at the return levels of ten or fifteen years ago. Global liquidity means investors need this financing as part of how they manage capital. You’ve got asset managers leveraging their own networks, and investors without a European footprint looking for a partner with aligned risk appetite. That’s exactly the gap Kennedy Lewis and BOI fill for each other.

Based on all this, what are the next steps for your team?

Thomas: It’s about conversion. We’ve taken several transactions to the final stage and lost them because of the process, not through fault of the product. This is a senior debt product, not unitranche, and we believe in it. With the agency capability we already have, we can deliver the whole package from one place.

Amber: Offering agency and FX hedging alongside the lending is something only a bank partnership brings. Kennedy Lewis isn’t the only tool either, we can still run normal senior clubs, underwrite with a Kennedy Lewis anchor ticket to cut syndication risk, do super senior, or take a slice of unitranche.

Hot take: what’s one view you have on the German leveraged finance market that most of your peers would disagree with?

Ivan: In this market environment lenders need to get used to financing assets that aren’t growing, but still can make a compelling debt story.

Amber: After the next economic crisis, regulation for private credit is going to get a lot harsher, and that will level the playing field between banks and funds.

Thomas: Being an optimist is like buying a computer, there’s always a better one coming next quarter. But you still have to invest, and you can still make good investments, because there are smart people around. And sometimes I’d appreciate better collaboration.

This interview is part of Leverest Credit Talk — featuring senior voices from across the private credit and leveraged finance landscape. Learn more about Leverest → leverest.net

Founded in September 2019 and headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany, DELABO Group comprises over 50 labs and more than 1,500 employees, providing national coverage while preserving regional proximity. DELABO differentiates through a comprehensive product and service offering spanning dental prosthetics, implants, and orthodontics, including its own branded products.

Mediobanca acted as exclusive debt advisor to Avedon, structuring and executing the refinancing.

We congratulate Avedon, DELABO Group, Mediobanca, and all parties involved on this successful transaction.

“Debt financing powered by Leverest”

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Munich, VidaCura has grown into a multi-regional group of independently managed care operators, with facilities spanning southern and western Germany as well as sites in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. The company specializes in stationary care, senior residences, and day care services tailored to the needs of the German care market.

With a strong reputation for entrepreneurial, high-quality care delivery, VidaCura has built long-standing relationships with residents, families, and care professionals across its network.

Mediobanca acted as exclusive debt advisor to Apheon, structuring and executing the refinancing.

We congratulate Apheon, VidaCura, Mediobanca, and all advisors involved on this successful transaction.

“Debt financing powered by Leverest”

Through the cooperation, deal managers and lenders can now find Altrium listed in Leverest’s 3rd Party Directory, request loan agency quotes directly through the Leverest platform and integrate third party loan agency services into their financing processes and portfolio activities.

Maximilian Ulrich, Director at Leverest, comments:

“As an independent platform, we believe the future of financing lies in a more connected ecosystem – where the right technology and service providers work seamlessly together for the benefit of clients. Our cooperation with Altrium is another step towards connecting Leverest with the broader loan lifecycle and creating a more seamless, efficient experience for our users.”

Clément Couloumy, Senior Director at Altrium, comments:

“Leverest has been changing the way Private Markets work with their technological approach, and it was a natural fit for us to get closer to them. At Altrium, we are bringing loan administration into the 21st century with real-time data access, automation to reduce operational risk, and a level of transparency much needed in this industry. Not only does that answer a demand from the market, it also aligns closely with Leverest’s philosophy. As both our technologies evolve, the experience for a sponsor or lender will become even more seamless, which is very exciting.”

The cooperation brings technology and loan administration closer together and makes the financing lifecycle more connected, transparent and efficient for sponsors and lenders alike.

About Leverest

Leverest the leading capital markets platform for private capital markets. It supports private equity deal teams, debt advisors, lenders and finance leaders across the financing lifecycle, from lender outreach and deal workflow to portfolio monitoring. Leverest has offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Frankfurt and Berlin.

About Altrium

Altrium Financial Services is a provider of technology-enabled loan agency, debt administration and transaction services for the European private debt and syndicated loan markets.

Guest: Alexander Schröder, Managing Director & Head of Leveraged Finance at Commerzbank

Topic: Mid-Market LBOs & the Blurring Line Between Funds and Banks

About Commerzbank, your role & the market

1. You’ve been heading Leveraged Finance at Commerzbank for about 8 months now, after previously running the German and small-cap teams. How do you see the leveraged finance mid-market developing?

We had a good start to the year, but I think overall activity is still a little muted. There’s reluctance from buyers given the macroeconomic uncertainty and the lack of tailwinds from the economy. We’ve seen consolidation in the mid-market and weaker financials, which is driving that uncertainty. 

So, we see muted M&A activity overall, and for the strong credits that do come to market – which is what we and private equity are focusing on – everyone ends up chasing the same names. That leads to increasing competition for mid-market assets, especially given the massive dry powder on the private debt side and the lack of their favourite sector, software, which has become a tainted industry since the AI disruption.

Now everyone is chasing the same assets in industrial tech, business services, healthcare, medtech and so on. That drives competition and ever-decreasing standards on documentation. Pricing on the unitranche has also come down massively. Banks, to be fair, have stayed quite disciplined on margins – you can see that best in the super senior structures we’re doing right now. 

For strong assets we can no longer compete with the unitranche, but we’re still getting better upfront fees and very decent margins on a very low-risk product. The market needs to pick up for us to deploy more into classical senior structures.

2. Commerzbank has built co-investment partnerships with StepStone and Apollo. What are you doing together, and what was the thinking behind it?

We recognized that debt funds are here to stay. I’ve been in the industry for more than 20 years, and I saw them coming – I had my doubts, but they are clearly here to stay and now a dominant part of the market, owning 60–70% market share. 

So, we looked at what makes them so attractive to clients, given they’re usually higher priced and don’t always require 6x leverage. What distinguishes them from banks is the ability to hold larger transactions and enable bigger deals without taking on market risk. 

For banks, the only way to do a €100m deal in Germany is still to underwrite it yourself – we see that from players like UniCredit here and there. We chose a different path: partnering with private credit managers who hold pockets of liquidity, through two vehicles we set up with StepStone and Apollo. 

Bank vs. debt fund

3. How is it working in practice – In front of a sponsor, how does having StepStone or Apollo as partners change the conversation?

Both vehicles are managed by Commerzbank – that’s the important part, so we have a good steer on their ability to deliver alongside us. That lets us provide €100m of volume out of one hand, almost like a small unitranche. 

We remain the only client-facing entity – the client only talks to Commerzbank. Sponsors and management teams trust us, and StepStone and Apollo stay in the background, providing the liquidity. We have ongoing pipeline discussions with them so they’re aware of what’s coming and can plan their liquidity and funding, but we run the ICs, do the credit work, and they fund on request. 

The conversations with private equity and debt advisors have definitely changed as a result. Our strategy has paid off – we’re seeing a strong pull effect, because they know we’re now an alternative, especially in the lower mid-market, to the classical unitranche players. Although we do see some funds, under increased competition, pushing further down into the lower-cap segment – even €10m-EBITDA deals are heavily contested these days. 

We can be a real alternative to unitranche where leverage doesn’t need to be maximized and where cheaper pricing matters. We’re pricing at bank pricing.

4. While banks are partnering with funds, funds have increasingly moved into territory that used to be exclusively banks’ – senior debt, club-style structures. What’s your take on this development?

Let me be a little cynical here – they’re asset managers, they want to earn management fees, which is why they keep coming up with new structures like senior debt funds. 

I haven’t seen one that’s actually successful, at least not in the German mid-market – might be different in other jurisdictions. I’ve never seen them partner with us, because they’re too expensive. No German mid-market PE client or management team will pay 500bps for a 4x-leverage senior credit when they can get it from us at 400, 425bps at most. So, senior debt funds are, I think, just another product to increase management fees. 

Club-style structures are a result of the ever-increasing competition, and clients make use of that by having various debt funds competing in the same club. We first saw that on larger caps, especially when the market was dislocated and you needed to bring together different direct lenders. But now we’re seeing it even on a €150m transaction – three debt funds, each with a €50m ticket. 

You can guess the result on documentation and structure: the client gets what they want because the debt advisor plays them off against each other and gets an even better deal – the same thing that happened with the banks back when you were with us. 

The market was booming, there was massive competition, banks were in clubs, and you always ended up with the lowest common denominator. We’re seeing the same now in the more mature private debt market, where competition is overburdening and there needs to be a correction or consolidation at some point.

5. Where do you see limitations to the bank-fund partnership model? Could you end up competing with the same funds you partner with on other deals, or could Commerzbank end up partnering more than competing over time? 

There has to be consolidation among private credit players, I think. Consolidation among banks has already happened – all the players you knew from back in your time, like IKB, BayernLB have gone off the market; others are on-and-off or at least less active. We’ll see the same on private credit – as we go through a cycle you’ll see churn among teams, which will eventually result in consolidation. 

On whether bank partnership models could end up competing with them – we touched on that with them very early. They want to deploy in Germany but know they won’t have an edge in the mid-market; they have no people on the ground. I know their originators for their larger-cap private credit business well – they told me they’re totally agnostic: if we bring them a deal through the vehicle, they have the same incentive as if they’d done it themselves. 

So we are their way into the mid-market. If it moves into the larger caps, yes, there might be some overlap – Apollo could compete with us on a project where we provide a syndicated structure and they provide the one-stop-shop unitranche. But their focus is a bit different, so my gut feel is we’d only compete with Apollo on the larger caps.

6. Based on all this, what are the next steps for your team?

We have ambition to grow. 

Clearly the new circumstances – the potential new owner, the merger with UniCredit – could have a bearing on the strategic direction. UniCredit has a different focus, less on the mid-market and more on the underwritten business, whereas our partnerships are our way of tackling the lower mid-market. I’m actually looking forward to the merger, because I know a lot of the people there – some are former colleagues – and I’m relaxed about it because I see limited overlap. 

At the same time, we have ambition to grow the book – we’re running a roughly €4.5bn portfolio, and that’s supposed to grow further. We want to keep growing our co-investment vehicles, especially with Apollo, which has almost endless firepower.

Closer

7. Hot take: Looking ahead, what’s one view you have on the leveraged finance market that most of your peers would disagree with?

Given that a lot of my peers are now in private credit, I think there will be a correction at some point – on valuations, with more realism and more pressure from LPs to really look into how good their portfolios actually are. 

That will bring consolidation, and there’ll be churn among senior people. The big players are here to stay, but there has to be a correction among the smaller, less active managers – there’s a massive number of them out there.

The facility was provided by RSI Capital and will be used to fund further acquisitions and investments within AXAITRA’s business plan, backing the company’s continued buy-and-build strategy under Greenpeak Partners’ ownership.

Since its founding, AXAITRA has pursued an active buy-and-build strategy, bringing together specialist Microsoft partners across Europe including Zertia Telecomunicaciones (Spain), LM IT Services (Germany)), Stellium (Switzerland) and ITAGIL (Nordics). The group focuses on public cloud, data, AI and app modernisation services for small, medium and large enterprises, backed by deep expertise across the Microsoft ecosystem.

We congratulate Greenpeak Partners, the AXAITRA team and all parties involved on the successful transaction.

Debt financing powered by Leverest.

Founded in 1883 and headquartered in Heiligenhaus, North Rhine-Westphalia, STUV has built subsidiaries in Spain and China and sells its systems across Europe, North America, and Asia. The company is a market leader in digital access solutions, supplying locking and control technology used across the energy, transport, and healthcare sectors, as well as high-security systems for prisons and detention facilities.

Recognized for its engineering expertise and long operating history, STUV has established deep relationships with public authorities and critical-infrastructure operators throughout its markets.

Mediobanca acted as exclusive debt advisor to EMZ Partners, structuring and executing the financing.

We congratulate Mediobanca, EMZ Partners, STUV, and all advisors involved on this successful transaction.

“Debt financing powered by Leverest”

The Conversation the Industry Is Having Right Now

Technology in private markets is no longer a back-office topic. From AI-native deal workflows to real-time portfolio monitoring and lender intelligence, the tools available to PE firms, advisors and lenders have changed significantly in the last three years and the pace is not slowing down.

The Private Markets Technology Summit brings together the practitioners and builders shaping that shift. This year’s speaker lineup reflects exactly that.

Jan-Moritz will be joining:

• Daniel Wroblewski, Managing Director, AI, CPP Investments | Investissements RPC.
• Allison Loosley, General Manager, EMEA, Chronograph.
• Sven Törnkvist, Partner & Global Co-Head, EQT Digital, EQT Group.
• Chair: Charlie Pickell, Head of EMEA AI Strategy, Hebbia.

The conversation will cover where technology is heading in private markets and what that means practically for the firms operating in this space today.

Why This Matters for Leverest

Leverest was built specifically for the deal execution layer of private capital markets – the part that has historically been the most manual and the least connected. Lender outreach, NDA workflows, deal analytics, portfolio monitoring and lender intelligence all sit on one platform.

The question of how AI and modern infrastructure intersects with that layer is exactly the kind of debate happening at summits like this one. Jan-Moritz has been building in this space since before the current AI wave and brings a grounded perspective on what actually moves the needle for deal teams versus what is noise.

Join Us on June 25

If you are attending the 2026 Private Markets Technology Summit, connect with Jan-Moritz on the day.

June 25, 2026 | 8 AM – 5 PM | London, UK

Want to meet ahead of the event or set up time on the sidelines? Reach out at support@leverest.net or visit leverest.net.

Leverest is the deal execution platform for private capital markets. Headquartered in Frankfurt with offices in London, New York and San Francisco.

70,000+ runners. One finish line. And a balcony BBQ waiting on the other side.

A Leverest Tradition

The JPMorgan Corporate Challenge brings together companies from across Frankfurt every year for a 5.6km city run and it has become something we genuinely look forward to as a team. The event brought together colleagues from across our locations, as well as members of our advisory board, making it a truly special team occasion.

Alongside colleagues from across our Frankfurt, London offices, we were joined by members of our advisory board making it one of the more complete Leverest team gatherings we have had.

It is not often you get the full crew together in one place. The Corporate Challenge has quietly become one of those occasions.

See You Next Year Frankfurt

Frankfurt’s finance community shows up for this one every year and so do we. Running alongside 70,000+ people from the firms and institutions that shape European capital markets it is a good reminder that behind every deal there is a team of people. We will be back in 2027. 

Leverest is the deal execution platform for private capital markets. Learn more at leverest.net.

The FY 2025 Tracker maps a curated selection of ~200 publicly available DACH mid-market LBO debt transactions from the past year – covering the sponsors, debt advisors, lenders, and legal counsel behind every deal, and the relationships connecting them.

Inside the report

• Relationship maps across sponsors, debt advisors, lenders, and legal counsel — see who’s working with whom across both sides of the table
• FY 2025 deal list with direct links to the underlying press releases for every transaction, ensuring full source transparency
• Visual analytics on the most active advisory players and where the advisory market is concentrating

Access the report:
Download the Leverest Relationship Tracker FY 2025
Read the full FINANCE Magazin article by Olivia Harder