Private credit deals totalled a record 987 in 2025, up 15.4 per cent year-on-year and surpassing the previous high of 855 in 2024, according to a new report.
Deloitte’s Private Debt Deals Tracker reported that the total number of deals reached last year is the highest since it began collecting data on private debt deals in 2012.
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In the second half of 2025, there were 551 private debt transactions, driven by the final quarter, in which 290 deals were recorded, making it the busiest quarter on record. That is an increase of 26.4 per cent on the 436 deals recorded in the first half of the year.
The average reported deal size in 2025 was €159.3m (£138.7m).
“The latter part of 2025 saw a notable shift towards M&A-driven activity, particularly in the sponsor-backed buyout space. M&A related deal volumes represented the biggest proportion (33.5 per cent) of completed deals,” Deloitte said in its report.
“In addition, a notable portion of transactions were refinancings of facilities put in place in 2021 and 2022, highlighting that much-talked-about ‘maturity wall’ has firmly arrived.”
The last six months of data also showed risk appetite “moving up the leverage curve”, according to the report.
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Deloitte identified the UK and France as “primary centres of European deal activity”, collectively accounting for 48.6 per cent of the total number of deals in 2025, with both countries seeing an increase in deals.
In the UK, deals rose from 119 deals in the first half of the year, to 136 in the second half, while French deals increased from 97 to 128 deals.
However, when compared to the second half of 2024, the UK saw its volume decrease by 1 per cent, while in France, volumes climbed 12.3 per cent in the second half of 2025.
By sector, technology, media and telecoms, and business services continued to “dominate”, accounting for 21.9 per cent and 21.4 per cent of deals respectively, with life sciences and healthcare at 17 per cent, and financial services at 12 per cent.
“We are seeing deal activity increase in energy, resources and industrials, real estate and SRTs [significant risk transfers], as private credit managers look to new asset classes to deploy capital,” Deloitte stated.
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