The Carlyle Group is boosting its distressed debt investments and is targeting $400 million for the Carlyle Strategic Partners fund, which invests in the debt of operationally sound, financially distressed companies. Reportedly, the fund has raised $73.8 million from 16 investors in recent weeks. A Carlyle spokesman declined comment on the target size of the fund.
Carlyle believes the distressed market will pick up in the coming months. If history is any measure, when credit is so easily available it is only a matter of time before defaults rise, said a source. Alexander Greene and Raymond Whiteman are the managing directors heading the fund. Whiteman did not return calls. Carlyle is also raising $400 million for its Carlyle Mezzanine Partners fund.