Bain-backed 360 One WAM plans largest private credit fund in India

By Saikat Das 

Bain Capital-backed 360 One WAM Ltd. plans to raise as much as 30 billion rupees ($357 million) through a private credit fund that will be its largest to date, according to people familiar with the matter. 

The fund — the firm’s fifth — will invest in the performing credit of large- and mid-sized companies that are seeking to expand, said the people who asked not to be identified because the information is not yet public. It will have a base size of about 20 billion rupees, with a greenshoe option of 10 billion rupees, they added.

 

360 One declined to comment on the fund, when approached by Bloomberg News.

 

A growing pipeline of deals is nudging India’s private credit market closer to the $10 billion mark as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s infrastructure push fuels a boom in funding among mid-sized firms. Domestic firms have gained a foothold in the industry after executing a flurry of deals that helped them grab market share from global giants such as KKR & Co. and Oaktree Capital Management.

 

360 One’s private credit assets are approaching $1 billion after the firm closed its fourth private credit fund for 21.3 billion rupees last year, according to a statement from the company in July 2023. The new fund is open for subscriptions and will raise the targeted amount in the next few months, the people said. 

 

India’s mid-sized enterprises have embraced private credit because of the flexibility in structuring solutions for borrowers, according to Moody’s Ratings. Private credit “is now a major source of corporate financing among middle-market firms that have low or negative earnings, high leverage, and lack high-quality collateral,” central bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said last month.