A cross-perspective on private credit with Brian Marcus, Head of Cross-Platform Investing for Global Credit at Carlyle, and Alex Bogdanovskij, Investment Advisor at CMB Monaco.

Private credit has continued to attract capital despite increased scrutiny. From your perspective, how do you see the market evolving in 2026 in terms of opportunities, competition and discipline?

Brian Marcus: We expect private credit will continue to attract capital into 2026, but the market is becoming far more differentiated. We believe the opportunity is still very much there, particularly in Europe, where we continue to see relative value and a spread premium versus other markets. At the same time, the opportunity set is broadening beyond traditional direct lending into more flexible capital solutions, opportunistic strategies and other parts of the private credit ecosystem as competition in core direct lending increases.

Competition is clearly intensifying. More capital and more managers mean tighter pricing and a reset in return expectations, which makes selectivity increasingly important. Discipline will be the defining factor. That means being highly focused on resilient business models, defensive sectors and the parts of the market where you can truly add value through underwriting, structuring and sourcing — rather than chasing volume or stretching risk to maintain headline returns.

 

In this environment, how does CMB Monaco position private credit within client portfolios?

Alex Bogdanovskij: At CMB Monaco, we position private credit as a complement to public credit portfolios, both to broaden the investment universe and to enhance yields through attractive spreads. Private credit offers compelling relative performance and low correlation to public markets, benefits that are particularly valuable in volatile environments. We remain convinced that a well-constructed modern portfolio should include a meaningful allocation to private markets, including credit. We invest across the full spectrum of private credit strategies, from direct lending to SRT and special situations, leveraging both top-tier partners and our in-house expertise to provide clients with access to institutional-quality opportunities across the asset class.

 

Brian, you have built with Carlyle a team with the skill set to invest in the opportunistic and sponsorless market. How do you think about these strategies, and what should investors be most mindful of when allocating to them today?

Brian Marcus: We’ve deliberately built a team to invest in the sponsorless market because it is fundamentally different from traditional direct lending. In our view, sponsorless and opportunistic credit can be attractive parts of the private credit landscape because they allow for more flexible structures and, in certain cases, higher absolute and relative returns for a given type of risk. That said, it’s important to be clear on definitions. For us, opportunistic credit does not mean distressed or special situations. It means providing tailored capital solutions to companies operating in more complex or less standardized contexts, often outside traditional sponsor-led frameworks. This is a more articulated strategy that requires specific skills, active risk management and advanced origination capabilities. In practice, only a limited number of managers with established platforms and long-term track records can operate effectively in this space. That is precisely why we have built dedicated teams with the skill sets required to source, structure and actively manage these opportunities through the cycle.

 

From CMB Monaco’s perspective, Alex, with performance dispersion rising, how do you assess manager quality and help clients navigate yield–risk–liquidity trade-offs?

Alex Bogdanovskij: Dispersion between first- and fourth-quartile managers is particularly pronounced in private markets, where skill and repeatable processes can be observed and compounded into meaningful relative outperformance. As allocators, we seek repeatable processes and stable, long-term investment teams that have demonstrated consistent results across market cycles. Our approach assumes that these teams - supported by high-quality deal flow and the robust infrastructure of a top-tier platform - can continue to deliver strong returns over time.

As part of both initial and ongoing due diligence, we assess underwriting quality, collateral strength, and consistency of historical performance. We also evaluate liquidity management and valuation practices, recognizing the structural opacity inherent in this asset class. When advising clients, we balance yield objectives with underlying credit risk and the illiquidity profile of each strategy. We emphasize that higher yields often come with greater complexity and lower liquidity, and we present this trade-off transparently.

Our goal, as a long-term partner, is to tailor allocations to each client’s risk tolerance and liquidity needs while maintaining portfolio stability. We firmly believe that quality and scale are critical advantages in private markets, and we will never compromise them in the pursuit of incremental yield.