PGIM, the global asset management business of Prudential Financial, has announced the final close of PGIM Senior Loan Opportunities II ( PSLO II ), the second commingled private credit fund available to unaffiliated investors in its middle-market direct lending series.

The fund has raised over US$4.2 billion in capital commitments, making it one of the largest middle-market direct lending private credit fund raises this year and reflecting strong support from a global base of institutional investors.

Building on the success of its predecessor, PSLO II will provide senior secured financing to middle-market companies across North America, Europe, and Australia.

The fund attracted commitments from a diverse group of institutional investors, including insurance companies, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds.

PSLO II will focus on delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns through a diversified portfolio of directly originated senior loans to both sponsored and non-sponsored issuers. The fund has already begun deploying capital, with a strong pipeline of opportunities and a well-developed investment portfolio, PGIM says.

Matt Harvey, head of middle market direct lending for PGIM’s private capital business, comments: “Much of the growth in direct lending in recent years has been in sponsor-backed deals. But that channel is no longer sufficient to achieve appropriate diversification and deployment targets for investors.”

Business differentiator

In the United States alone, there are around 200,000 middle-market companies, and only about 10,000 are private equity-owned. This means more than 90% of the addressable market remains non-sponsored.

Harvey says PGIM’s ability to capture both sponsored and non-sponsored channels has proved to be a differentiator in the business.

“Origination capability is the cornerstone of success in private credit as it underpins our ability to execute with discipline, benefiting from broader selectivity,” he explains.

“In a market characterized by information asymmetry, direct bilateral origination at scale across the middle market, built over years, creates proprietary deal flow and underwriting advantages.”

In June 2025, PGIM confirmed it would bring together its fixed income and private credit businesses under a global capability spanning public and private markets to create an industry-leading public and private fixed income team with a credit platform of nearly US$1 trillion.