NXT Capital: Strategic Partnership With Cresset Partners 

By Amit Chowdhry • Jul 2, 2024

NXT Capital, a subsidiary of ORIX USA, announced it has entered into a strategic investment partnership with Cresset Partners. Cresset is the private investment arm of Cresset Capital, a $50 billion wealth management and multi-family office platform. The bespoke program provides individuals and family offices on Cresset’s platform with access to direct private lower-middle market investment opportunities.

This program will focus on direct lending deals in the lower middle market. And Cresset’s Private Credit Fund (CPCF) will provide capital for the portfolio, which will include diversified direct investments in floating rate, senior secured loans to lower middle market companies.

NXT Capital offers structured financing solutions through its Direct Lending group and targets U.S.-based borrowers with EBITDA between $5 million and $50 million. And since NXT Capital’s inception in 2010, the Direct Lending team has closed over $28.5 billion in financing commitments in more than 500 platform transactions. NXT Capital is based in Chicago with offices in Atlanta, Dallas, and New York, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ORIX USA.

Launched in the U.S. in 1981, ORIX USA specializes in private credit, real estate, and private equity solutions for middle-market focused borrowers and investors, combining a solid balance sheet with funds from third-party investors. ORIX USA and its subsidiaries have about 1,300 employees across the U.S. and have $85 billion in assets, which include $26.8 billion of assets under management, $48.6 billion in servicing and administration assets, and approximately $9.2 billion in proprietary assets (as of March 2024).

Cresset is an independent multi-family office and private investment firm with over $45 billion (as of April 1, 2024) in assets under management. And Cresset serves the unique needs of entrepreneurs, CEO founders, wealth creators, and executives, as well as high-net-worth and multi-generational families. 

KEY QUOTES:

“This program underscores the continued growth of our asset management platform and the advantage of being able to tap into a strong balance sheet. We are pleased to partner with Cresset, a leading wealth management advisory firm, which selected us to enhance their credit portfolio by providing access to differentiated opportunities in the lower middle market. As the middle market lending market has grown rapidly over the last few years, sophisticated RIAs like Cresset are increasingly looking to focus on the areas of opportunity within the asset class. We look forward to this partnership with Cresset and to providing our specialized expertise and solutions to this investor base.”

  • Ted Denniston, Co-Head of NXT Capital

“As investment opportunities in private credit become more nuanced and investor interest continues to grow, we continuously look for experienced and specialized managers to enhance and broaden our Private Credit Fund. We welcomed the chance to partner with NXT Capital for this program.” 

  • Kevin O’Donnell, Executive Managing Director and Head of the Private Funds Group at Cresset

“The team at NXT Capital was very responsive and moved quickly to establish our new partnership. With NXT’s tenure and specialization in lower middle market lending, we are looking forward to growing this partnership and providing additional access to private credit for our client base.” 

  • Bradley Schneider, Managing Director and Head of Private Credit at Cresset