A three-day annual conference in London gathering private credit fund managers, institutional investors, and advisers to debate direct lending, asset-backed finance, secondaries, and specialty credit strategies across the European market.
SuperReturn Private Credit Europe is an annual three-day conference organised by Informa Connect, dedicated to the private credit market in Europe. It convenes credit fund managers, institutional lenders, limited partners, sponsors, and advisers to discuss direct lending, unitranche structures, asset-backed finance, secondary credit strategies, and distressed debt. The event takes place each March in London and forms part of the broader SuperReturn brand portfolio. Its founding year is not publicly documented.
The 2026 edition runs from Monday 9 March to Wednesday 11 March at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London. The programme is being published progressively at the time of verification. Historically, the event has featured senior decision-makers from institutions including Blackstone Credit, Ares, Bain Capital Credit, Carlyle, Alcentra, and Apollo. A dedicated Asset-Backed Finance summit is scheduled as a pre-conference session, extending the programme beyond the core three days for participants with specific interest in that strategy.
The event occupies an early-March slot, positioning it in the opening phase of the spring private capital conference cluster that runs from March through June across EMEA. London in this window is an active gathering point before the circuit moves toward the continental European events of April and May. For private credit specifically, March allows fund managers to brief institutional allocators ahead of mid-year portfolio reviews and before the summer slowdown in capital deployment decisions.
The programme is structured entirely around private credit strategies, with dedicated sessions on direct lending, asset-backed finance, secondaries, niche and specialty finance, and distressed debt. This concentration distinguishes it from generalist LP-GP summits where private credit competes for agenda space alongside private equity, infrastructure, and real assets. The complementary LP access model, where qualified institutional investors may attend without a delegate fee, shapes the room composition and creates an environment oriented around capital formation conversations rather than passive conference attendance.
Session counts by stage, special format details beyond those listed, and the names of individual roundtable or workshop formats for the 2026 edition are not publicly documented at the time of verification.
The conference includes a structured one-to-one meeting programme running alongside the plenary and panel sessions. This mechanism allows GPs and LPs to schedule bilateral conversations within the conference venue rather than relying exclusively on informal corridor networking. Advance scheduling details and the name of any official matchmaking application for the 2026 edition are not publicly disclosed. Networking receptions across the three days extend the available meeting volume beyond the formal session hours.
The pre-conference Asset-Backed Finance summit creates an additional, more concentrated meeting environment for participants focused on that specific strategy, effectively adding a fourth working day for attendees who opt into both the pre-conference and main programme.
The documented thematic areas across the programme are:
A complete session schedule with speaker assignments had not been published at the time of verification.
Self-reported by organiser
| Total attendance | 700+ senior decision-makers |
| Limited partners | 220+ |
| General partners | 350+ |
| Speakers confirmed (as of verification) | 3 |
| Duration | 3 days (plus pre-conference summit) |
| AUM represented | not disclosed |
SuperReturn Private Credit Europe is a strategy-specific conference focused entirely on private credit, sitting within the SuperReturn portfolio published by Informa Connect. The broader SuperReturn series includes the flagship SuperReturn International (a generalist private capital event) and other strategy-specific titles. The Private Credit Europe edition concentrates the programme, the speaker roster, and the meeting system on credit fund managers and credit allocators, rather than distributing agenda time across private equity, infrastructure, and real assets.
Five profiles where the event is a poor fit. First, general private equity fund managers without a meaningful credit or hybrid capital component to their strategy: the programme does not address buyout or growth equity deal dynamics. Second, small or emerging private credit managers seeking LP introductions for sub-€200 million strategies, given the room is populated by institutional LPs whose ticket sizes and mandate thresholds tend to favour established managers. Third, LPs whose allocation focus is outside Europe and for whom the strategic discussions anchored in European credit markets offer limited relevance. Fourth, market participants seeking a pure conference experience without the expectation of bilateral meetings: the format is built around meeting intensity, and passive attendance yields a different return. Fifth, corporate borrowers without a specific agenda around private credit financing who attend in the hope of sourcing equity or other capital: the event is structured for the asset management and institutional investment community.
The documented strategies are direct lending, unitranche structures, asset-backed finance, private credit secondaries, niche and specialty finance (including trade finance and specialty credit), and distressed debt. Artificial intelligence applications within private credit operations also appear in the thematic scope for 2026. The complete session schedule for 2026 was not finalised at the time of verification.
According to the organiser, the 700-plus figure refers specifically to senior decision-makers, with 220-plus classified as LPs and 350-plus as GPs. Historical speaker representation has included managing directors, chief investment officers, and senior partners from institutions such as Blackstone Credit, Ares, Bain Capital Credit, Carlyle, Alcentra, and Apollo. Entry-level and analyst-grade participation is not part of the stated audience profile.
Private credit refers to debt instruments originated and held by non-bank lenders outside publicly traded bond or loan markets. Strategies include direct lending to mid-market companies, unitranche facilities that combine senior and subordinated debt in a single instrument, asset-backed lending against specific collateral pools, and distressed debt purchases at a discount. The asset class expanded substantially in the years following the 2008 financial crisis as banks reduced balance sheet exposure to corporate lending, and again during the post-2022 rate normalisation period as higher base rates improved yield dynamics for floating-rate credit instruments.
The Royal Lancaster Hotel is located on Lancaster Terrace in Bayswater, at the northern edge of Hyde Park, within the W2 postcode. The property is a purpose-built hotel of significant room inventory that regularly hosts large private capital events alongside its hospitality and banqueting functions. Its proximity to Hyde Park Corner, Paddington, and the West End makes it logistically convenient for delegates travelling from European financial centres via Heathrow. The hotel's capacity for large plenary assemblies, combined with breakout rooms suited to parallel panel tracks and private meeting spaces for bilateral sessions, makes it a functional match for a conference programme of this structure.
Side events such as evening networking receptions are typically hosted within the hotel itself, concentrating the networking footprint and reducing travel time between sessions. Specific side event venues for the 2026 edition are not publicly documented.
Informa Connect is the events and specialist information division of Informa plc, a publicly listed British information services and publishing group headquartered in the United Kingdom. The division produces conferences, training, and digital content across sectors including financial services, life sciences, and fashion. In private capital, Informa Connect operates the SuperReturn brand, which covers a portfolio of events spanning the main SuperReturn International gathering, regional titles for Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and strategy-specific editions including SuperReturn Private Credit Europe. The creation year of Informa Connect as a distinct division is not publicly documented in available sources, though the SuperReturn brand itself has been active in the private equity conference market for over two decades. Informa Connect is classified as a commercial publisher operating conference properties at scale.
SuperReturn Private Credit Europe occupies a specific and increasingly contested position in the London spring calendar: a high-density meeting environment for a strategy that has moved from niche to dominant within institutional alternatives portfolios, and whose practitioners now require a dedicated forum rather than a sub-track at a generalist event.
Registration is managed through the Informa Connect website at the address listed in the Resources section below. Access conditions are tiered by delegate type. Qualified institutional investors (LPs) may be eligible to attend on a complimentary basis, a model consistent with the broader SuperReturn series, though this is subject to confirmation with Informa Connect directly and is not guaranteed for all LP profiles.
For GPs and service providers, a delegate fee applies. Pricing for the 2026 edition is not published on publicly indexed pages at the time of verification. Rates for the 2025 edition were reported in the approximate range of £3,500 to £4,500 for standard delegate registration. A VIP discount code (FKR3638ACI) providing a reported 10% reduction has been documented, though its validity for the 2026 edition and applicable tiers should be confirmed with the organiser before use.
| Official website | https://informaconnect.com/superreturn-private-credit-europe/ |
| Register | https://informaconnect.com/superreturn-private-credit-europe/ |
| Programme | not disclosed |
The event operates as an open-access conference, meaning registration is available without an invitation requirement. LP and GP registrants follow different pricing tracks. Qualified institutional investors may be eligible for complimentary access, subject to validation by the organiser. This should be confirmed directly with Informa Connect before completing registration.
Delegate pricing for the 2026 edition is not publicly disclosed on indexed pages as of the verification date. The 2025 edition was reported to carry a standard delegate rate in the approximate range of £3,500 to £4,500. These figures are approximate and historical; they should not be treated as confirmed 2026 pricing. Contact Informa Connect directly for a current quote.
The 2026 edition runs from 9 to 11 March at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, Lancaster Terrace, London W2 2TY. A pre-conference Asset-Backed Finance summit is also scheduled, though its precise date relative to the 9 March opening is not specified in publicly available materials at the time of verification.
One-to-one meetings are a documented component of the event format. Details on the advance scheduling mechanism and any official matchmaking application for the 2026 edition are not publicly disclosed. Participants seeking to arrange meetings ahead of the event should contact Informa Connect's delegate services team for guidance on the scheduling process.