There's a lot of private-credit money chasing the biggest deals. This $7 billion manager is going after 'funkier stuff.'

• The world's largest asset managers have raised hundreds of billions to invest in private credit.
• These firms, including BlackRock, Blackstone, and more, are often looking at straightforward, direct lending deals.
• Smaller, "funkier" deals have less competition, New Holland says, keeping returns high and LPs happy.

There's a flood of money rushing to the biggest deals in private-credit land, and it's starting to squeeze returns for the end investors.

In recent years, managers like BlackRock, Millennium, Ares, D.E. Shaw, Blackstone, and others have raised massive funds, acquired long-standing private debt players, and launched new units to lend to companies and projects, with many focusing on infrastructure, both physical and digital.

But that much competition for deals means lendees, not lenders, have their pick of a partner and can negotiate for more favorable terms, which has tamped down return expectations for the asset class.

Private credit was the hottest asset class with institutional investors just two years ago, but has since had declining interest due to concerns about rising default risk, according to a recent Goldman Sachs survey of hedge fund allocators.

And yet, despite these emerging headwinds, alternative asset manager New Holland Capital is deciding to open its private credit strategy, called Special Opportunities, to new cash.

The reason: "We're seeing no spread compression in deals we are looking at," said Andrew Parchman, a partner at the firm.

While big-name direct lending strategies run by the industry's titans might be feeling pinched, "there's a lot less erosion" in the "funkier things" the firm's smaller strategy looks at, said Scott Radke, the firm's co-chief investment officer.

Avoiding 'tourists'

New Holland, which began as an investment advisor for Dutch pension plans before spinning off, now manages close to $7 billion across liquid and illiquid bets, including stakes in external hedge funds and a new group of internal traders.

The firm has been running its Special Opportunities strategy for its long-standing Dutch clients since 2020 and opened it to new money for the first time at the start of the new year. It's an evergreen fund that looks to turn over its positions relatively quickly and has interested family offices "who might be a little skeptical of direct lending," Radke said.

"It's not the same investment that it used to be several years ago," Radke said about the standard direct lending strategy that private credit is known for. Data from With Intelligence shows that LPs don't have the same appetite for the space's bread-and-butter as they once did; in 2025, direct lending strategies raised $106 billion, compared to $141.8 billion in 2024.

The focus for New Holland is on deals or events that aren't scalable or repeatable, meaning they fall under the radar of the biggest players, Parchman said. The strategy is seeking quicker "bridge-style deals" and will partner with specialty funds on one-off deals, he said. In 2025, the firm both deployed and realized over $250 million across the strategy.

The manager will lend to deals that offer both tangible and intangible assets as collateral — think a fleet of private jets or the intellectual property of a new prescription drug in trial phase — as well as time-sensitive deals and quirky partnership opportunities sourced through the firm's network.

Any slowdown in private credit fundraising due to jitters about the credit landscape will give players like New Holland more say on deal terms, Parchman believes.

"You're even less likely to get tourists coming in," he said.