The buzz around private credit in CEEMEA intensified in 2025, as market participants forecast a continued growth in transactions driven by increased cooperation with banks next year.

Healthcare, education, and broader infrastructure have been identified as sectors of interest across markets.

Managers drew inspiration from one of the Gulf’s largest ever private credit deals, which involved global giants Goldman Sachs, Citi and Apollo, to plan for greater cooperation with banks in 2026.

Deal sizes are growing, and large private credit firms are sitting behind banks in a manner more customarily seen in more developed markets, said Haris Meyer Hanif, partner at law firm A&O Shearman, who specialises in private credit.

Attractive pricing is a driving force for investors, including in the GCC and Egypt, where PwC earlier this year put yields in the low to mid-teens.

The First Brands collapse in the US earlier this year gave some pause for thought, but managers pivoted quickly, saying it was a good reason for regional asset class investors to look closer to home.

All eyes on the Tamara deal 

One of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) largest ever private credit deals, as first reported by Debtwire in September, was a USD 1.4bn securitisation deal by Saudi Arabian buy now pay later (BNPL) fintech Tamara, with Goldman Sachs, Citi and Apollo. The deal has the capacity to be scaled up to USD 2.38bn.

The Tamara deal stood out as a company developing in the fintech space using advanced and sophisticated asset-backed funding solutions, paving the way for work done by earlier-stage private credit players, according to Sharif Eid, head of private credit at Amwal Capital Partners (ACP).

“Watching these facilities scale to this size, and perform as strongly as they have, is incredibly important for us,” said Eid. “The interest from major international players is a validation of the work we do at the earlier stage. It’s a proof of concept and shows that there is a promising final destination for these companies.”

In October, GCC-focused real estate investor Arzan Investment Management (AIM) secured a debt financing commitment from Brookfield Asset Management subsidiary Oaktree Capital Management, while United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based real estate platform Property Finder signed a USD 250m deal with global alternative investment manager Ares.

The appeal of private credit is expanding, as borrowers with historic ties to the bank market seek to incorporate the product into their funding mix.

Debtwire reported in November that GEMS Education, a UAE-based school operator, is seeking to raise a mix of bank loans and private credit in its bid for a Saudi Arabian school network.

A&O Shearman’s Meyer Hanif, who acted for Oaktree Capital Management in its AIM transaction, described the current regional market sentiment around private credit as “the beginning of a new era”.

“It is a space I have been working in for more than a decade, but which has only relatively recently attracted this level of interest,” he told Debtwire.

International funds are willing to invest in sophisticated legal analysis on structuring, as well as detailed enforcement strategies in the region, he added, with downside risk often being the most important topic. “Sophisticated funds want a clear strategy for how they will be able to get out of a situation and make a recovery, far ahead of how they will get into a situation,” he said.

Bankruptcy laws are progressing in the region, with the UAE issuing an update to its law, which came into effect last year. Saudi Arabia issued a comprehensive bankruptcy law in 2018, which it updated with laws specifically related to cross-border bankruptcy in December 2022.

Qatar is reported to be in the process of drafting updates to laws, including around bankruptcy.

International funds are increasingly setting up in the region, with the latest being KKR, which opened an office in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) in November.

“I think it’s very exciting for the market because it creates a lot of opportunity, which is no longer constrained by the credit appetite of a particular breed of investor, which is a bank,” Meyer Hanif said.

There is flexibility and risk appetite from a far broader spectrum of highly creative and motivated investors, he concluded.

In the GCC’s early-stage segment, there are now firmly established venture debt lenders operating in the region, according to Mirza Beg, partner and co-chief investment officer at Abu Dhabi-based Ruya Partners.

Regional private credit is attracting more interest from the region’s limited partners (LPs), with Shariah-compliant investors also now showing more interest in the asset class, he said. Artificial intelligence proliferation has also been felt in private credit lending this year, with increased demand from the information technology and data centre space.

On the structuring front, the market is not sponsor-backed, and while acquisition financing deals are happening, they are often not sponsor-led, so private credit structures in the region are broadly similar – typically unitranche, but done on a bespoke basis, he added.

2026 and beyond

Looking to the future, a shift towards more private equity sponsors of deals coming into the market will see private credit volumes increase, Beg said.

Banks are setting up their own private credit operations, he added, which he anticipated could lead to greater collaboration with funds.

This is borne out by reporting that HSBC was looking to partner with a private credit firm in April 2025. The bank’s private credit team was an arranger and sole underwriter of Gulf Navigation’s sukuk refinancing in November.

From a local fund perspective, Janus Henderson’s MENA Private Credit Fund IV has a fund management licence based in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and ACP has fund management licences in both Dubai and Riyadh. Both funds are, however, domiciled in the Cayman Islands.

As GCC private credit regulations continue to develop, ACP’s Eid believes it is likely that the next vintage of funds will move locally, particularly if passporting develops between different GCC states.

Sikander Ahmed, head of MENA private credit at Janus Henderson, has a bullish outlook for GCC infrastructure-focused borrowers, particularly in healthcare and education, due to the growth and migration of people and businesses to the region.

Janus Henderson also views Egypt as having healthy private credit potential, despite currency volatility. Deal growth in the UAE and Saudi will likely produce a spillover of deals in the North African country, Ahmed said, due to the geographical connections in terms of real estate investment and human resources exchange.

“You can’t really ignore Egypt as a market with a proper population base. There’s a lot of export potential,” said Ahmed.

“Right now, everybody is in the ‘figuring out how to do deals’ phase, but I do think in the new year, you’re going to see all the work that people are doing to set up translate into transactions,” Ahmed said.

Poland dominates in Central and Eastern Europe 

Poland continued to account for the majority of private credit deals in Central Europe, responsible for 90%, or 273, of the 312 deals recorded since 2020, according to data gathered by Deloitte. That has been concentrated across real estate and financial services. The data shows that the majority of deals across the region, 289, were done by local funds, versus 23 by global funds.

The largest of the year came in April when CVC Credit provided debt facilities of EUR 200m to cardiology healthcare provider American Heart of Poland.

LuxVet, a Warsaw-based veterinary services provider also secured “sizeable” financing worth tens of millions of euros from Cheyne SVC in a transaction with both debt and equity components.

In 2025, Central Europe has seen a development of more complex holding company financing structures, as well as more private credit funds from Western Europe providing unitranches, according to Adam Pankowski, partner associate, debt capital advisory at Deloitte.

The market remains dominated by sponsorless deals and senior financing structures – a trend that will most likely continue in 2026, Pankowski added.

Data from the Deloitte Private Debt Report, Poland and Central Europe, published in November, showed continued growth in the number of deals from 2023 to 2024. It reached 47 by the end of the third quarter of 2025, compared with 60 for the whole of 2024.

“We anticipate further growth of the transactions in 2026. In particular, there will be financing opportunities from platform-type of businesses executing a buy-and-build strategy, especially in the healthcare sector, as well as for acquisition financings with regard to cross-border M&A transactions,” Pankowski said.

CEE evolves, banks wake up to private credit

Banks are still learning how to cooperate with private credit lenders in Poland and Central Europe, he added.

“While there is clearly a need, there are still some obstacles,” said Pankowski. “A still very liquid and competitive bank financing market creates a competition with private credit funds for senior financing structures. On top, the market is restricted by a lack of sizable targets and transactions, which limit space for junior layers of debt above senior structures,” he said.

Regional funds, such as Poland-based CVI, are engaged in discussions with local banks around more formal cooperation.

“In 2026, we aim to be operational with this cooperation and able to offer our financing to bank clients in cases where, for any reason, the bank cannot provide additional financing,” said Marcin Leja, CVI’s chief executive officer and partner. That presents a “massive” opportunity, similar to arrangements that international banks have with global private debt funds.

Private debt from CVI and the Polish Development Fund financed the acquisition of Germany’s Gala Group by Poland-based Trend Group in September, while the region also experienced an increase in transactions in renewables and broader infrastructure.

The asset class has had a strong year overall with increasing recognition from international and local investors, Leja said. A key trend is private debt financing growth rather than leveraged buyouts – a key difference between the region and Western Europe.

“We have just completed fundraising for our next-generation fund, with all investors coming from the region. This was something that would not have been possible a few years ago,” said Leja.

Most deals are sponsorless – a trend likely to continue in the coming years, but deal ticket sizes are increasing. Most deals remain below the EUR 25m threshold, CVI’s Leja highlighted. But, with a better economic environment, businesses across the region are reviving investment plans and on the hunt for more capital.

Africa revs engines 

African private credit highlights for the year included the September announcement of TLG Capital’s USD 200m credit fund raise, along with the close of its TLG Africa Growth Impact Fund II in April with USD 75m.

Enko Capital, the Africa-focused alternative asset manager, reached the first close of its Enko Impact Credit Fund, raising USD 100m towards a USD 150m target.

In common with the GCC, there has been more asset-backed lending in 2025 across the continent, including deals executed by TLG, according to Nayim Khemais, co-founder and managing partner, 2NK Partners. 

“Over time, as we are seeing in the GCC, commercial banks will have more appetite to white-label private credit to their own customers or add private credit to their own corporate lending offerings,” he said.

Banks in Africa are already cooperating to provide letters of credit to companies that can discount them or use them as collateral for private credit financing, he added.

The Tamara deal in the Gulf is indicative of large global private credit companies providing loans to non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), a trend that Khemais expects to continue in emerging markets in 2026 and, potentially, impact Africa in the future at a larger scale.

“It goes without saying that expanding credit availability in developing countries can have a positive momentum, especially when credit is provided to NBFIs, which brings about a compounding effect on the economy in terms of both availability of working capital to small and medium enterprises and wealth effect on households,” Khemais said.

Private credit deals on the continent have been on the smaller side, observed at USD 10m-USD 20m by Khemais. However, alternative asset manager Ninety One has so far carried out deals of between USD 15m-USD 50m.

African private credit tends to be solutions-oriented, with a bias towards structuring to meet the needs of borrowers, said Kobi Sam, managing director and portfolio manager, emerging market alternative credit, Ninety One. “It’s generally a conservative market, with investments typically well-collateralised, featuring strong covenants and good downside protection,” said Sam, adding that operating on a continent with 54 countries means navigating multiple legal jurisdictions or regimes, requiring more thought to be given to legal agreements.

Managers need to be comfortable structuring across different legal jurisdictions, including ones outside Africa, as some companies may be domiciled offshore.

Sectors of recent interest include broad infrastructure – communications, digital infrastructure, renewable energy, financial services and finally, consumer sectors, given the large, young, growing population and rapid urbanisation underway.