The specialist annual forum for direct lending to the European middle market, bringing together credit fund managers, institutional allocators, investment banks, and advisory firms in London.
The European Private Credit Conference on Direct Lending is a dedicated annual forum examining how private credit funds originate, structure, and manage direct loans to mid-sized European companies. It targets credit fund managers, institutional investors, and service providers whose primary activity is European direct lending rather than the broader private debt universe. Now in its fourth edition, the conference is produced by DealCatalyst in partnership with AFME, and takes place each January at The Landmark Hotel in London.
European middle market direct lending has grown from a niche strategy to one of the defining capital flows in continental corporate finance. As banks reduced their balance-sheet exposure to leveraged mid-market companies following successive regulatory overhauls, non-bank lenders filled the gap with unitranche, senior secured, and junior capital facilities. The result is a structurally different credit market: deeper, faster, and more opaque than the broadly syndicated loan market, but also more flexible and relationship-driven.
The conference centres on this transition. Sessions examine origination dynamics across European jurisdictions, documentation and covenant standards that differ meaningfully from US precedent, and the pricing pressure that intensified as new funds entered the market throughout 2023 and 2024. Regulatory topics cover Solvency II amendments affecting insurance LP allocations, AIFMD II implementation, and ongoing supervisory attention from the European Central Bank and national regulators.
A recurring theme is the tension between deal volume and credit quality: the conference examines how direct lenders calibrate underwriting standards when competition for transactions is high, and how LPs should interpret headline return figures across vintage years with very different market conditions.
The attendee base reflects the full chain of European direct lending activity. Credit fund managers (GPs) constitute the core: origination teams, portfolio management professionals, and CFOs from dedicated direct lending vehicles and the credit arms of larger alternative managers. Institutional allocators include pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth vehicles, and family offices with existing or prospective private credit allocations.
Investment banks attend as arrangers, co-lenders, and secondary market counterparties. Legal counsel, rating agencies, fund administrators, technology providers, and CLO investors complete the service-provider segment. The conference also attracts originators and borrower representatives, who receive complimentary access alongside qualified LPs and allocators. Total expected attendance is 320+, with 110+ allocators and fund managers among them.
The agenda runs for 10+ hours including structured networking. Sessions cover: origination and deal flow in the current rate environment; covenant-lite versus covenant-heavy documentation and what each signals about market conditions; unitranche structures versus first- and second-lien arrangements; pricing dynamics and the compression of credit spreads since 2023; co-lending and club deal mechanics among competing direct lenders; portfolio monitoring, amendment, and workout procedures; ESG integration in credit documentation; and regulatory developments affecting both fund managers and institutional investors.
A Private Credit Club networking strand runs alongside the main programme, offering an invitation-only lounge for GPs, LPs, and borrowers to hold meetings in a smaller-format setting. The conference also reported 100+ bilateral meetings booked in prior editions, reflecting the structured meeting programme's importance to attendees.
Direct lending refers to loans made by non-bank institutions directly to companies, without using a public syndication process. The lender and the borrower negotiate terms bilaterally or in a small club, producing documentation that is more bespoke and faster to close than a broadly syndicated loan. The European market for direct lending has distinct characteristics from the US market: smaller average deal sizes, more varied legal jurisdictions, less standardised documentation, and a different LP base. A conference dedicated to European direct lending allows practitioners to address these specifics rather than working from US-centric frameworks. Sessions can examine German holdco structures, French bond-plus-term loan documentation, or Italian creditor protections without treating them as edge cases.
DealCatalyst produces the conference as event organiser: programme design, speaker recruitment, sponsorship sales, and on-site logistics. AFME (the Association for Financial Markets in Europe) is the co-organiser and trade association partner. AFME brings its network of regulated financial market participants, contributes to programme direction, and provides institutional credibility in regulatory and market structure sessions. AFME's involvement also shapes access: registration for allocator passes was historically subject to AFME approval, reinforcing the qualified-delegate profile of the audience.
The PDI Europe Summit and SuperReturn Private Credit are broader private debt gatherings covering real estate debt, infrastructure debt, distressed credit, and direct lending together. Their audiences mix generalist LPs, fund-of-funds allocators, and managers across all private debt strategies. The European Private Credit Conference on Direct Lending is narrower by design: direct lending to European mid-market companies is the primary subject, and the speaker and attendee selection reflects that focus. The trade-off is scale (320+ versus 1,000+ for larger events) in exchange for depth of conversation on deal mechanics, documentation, and European market specifics.
Professionals whose private credit activity is primarily US-based, or who focus on distressed debt, real estate credit, or infrastructure debt, will find the programme less relevant. Similarly, GPs from large-cap leveraged buyout funds who see private credit as a tangential allocation rather than a core strategy are unlikely to find enough content tailored to their situation. The event is not designed for retail investors or advisors without institutional-grade exposure to alternative credit.
DealCatalyst is a London-based events company specialising in financial markets conferences. It produces a portfolio of private credit, fund finance, and capital markets events, including a parallel US edition of the direct lending conference. DealCatalyst manages the full event production process and positions itself as a specialist in convening buy-side credit communities rather than running generalist finance conferences.
AFME, the Association for Financial Markets in Europe, represents the interests of wholesale financial market participants across the EU and UK. It covers capital markets infrastructure, regulatory policy, and market structure, with members drawn from global investment banks, asset managers, and market infrastructure providers. Its partnership with DealCatalyst on this conference reflects AFME's interest in private credit market development and its role bridging regulated intermediaries and the growing non-bank lending sector.
For a direct lending GP, this is a tight-format annual reference point: the audience density of credit-focused LPs and allocators justifies the day's investment, and the Private Credit Club format provides structured meeting access that larger events rarely replicate at this level of specificity. For a credit LP already active in European direct lending, the conference offers concentrated access to manager teams and a programme calibrated to portfolio-level questions (documentation standards, monitoring, regulatory impact on allocations) rather than asset class marketing. For LPs still exploring whether to enter European direct lending, the access is free and the programme provides a solid orientation. For generalist private equity or infrastructure investors with no direct lending mandate, the focus is too narrow to offer meaningful return on time.
Registration is available directly on the DealCatalyst website. Pricing for the 4th Annual (January 2027) as of verification: standard ticket £1,915; GP/investment manager ticket £1,435; onsite price £2,395. A super early bird rate ending 22 November 2026 applies to these figures. Complimentary passes are available for qualified allocators, LPs, originators, and borrowers, subject to approval. The conference has 18+ sponsors, which typically funds the complimentary access structure for the buy-side audience. Group booking discounts are not disclosed as of verification.
The conference is open to buy-side and sell-side professionals with a legitimate connection to European private credit markets. Complimentary access is available for institutional LPs, allocators, originators, and borrowers following a qualification review. Service providers, technology firms, and advisory firms pay standard or sponsor-tier pricing. There is no public exhibition floor; access is conference and networking format only.
The Landmark Hotel, located at 222 Marylebone Road, London NW1 6JQ, has hosted the conference since at least the 2nd Annual edition in January 2025. The Landmark is a five-star hotel with purpose-built conference facilities and is a standard venue for financial services events in central London. It is a two-minute walk from Marylebone station.
| Official website | https://www.dealcatalyst.io/events/european-private-credit-conference-on-direct-lending |
| Register | https://www.dealcatalyst.io/events/european-private-credit-conference-on-direct-lending/register |
| Programme | https://www.dealcatalyst.io/events/european-private-credit-conference-on-direct-lending/agenda |
| AFME event page | https://www.afme.eu/events/events-calendar/european-private-credit-conference-on-direct-lending/ |