Private credit, commercial real estate (CRE), infrastructure debt, and middle market direct lending have proved resilient across most rate regimes because performance is anchored in structure, cashflow durability, and disciplined underwriting - not in the direction of policy rates.
Concerns are growing over economic activity, political tension and policy uncertainty in the U.S., creating a challenging investment environment. Headlines throughout 2025 and so far in 2026 underlined this uneasiness; foreign investors were reportedly leaving U.S. markets in droves amid currency volatility and tariff-driven fears, possibly spelling the end of U.S. exceptionalism as we know it. Adding to these doubts is the spectre of an increasingly deglobalized world.
Germany’s mid-market is in transition, and private debt is playing a pivotal role. Digitalisation, energy, sovereignty and succession: these shifts are reshaping priorities and creating new financing needs.