PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Douglas Cumming AU - Grant Fleming TI - Debt Investments in Private Firms:<br/> <em>Legal Institutions and Investment</em> <br/> <em>Performance in 25 Countries</em> AID - 10.3905/jfi.2013.23.1.102 DP - 2013 Jun 30 TA - The Journal of Fixed Income PG - 102--123 VI - 23 IP - 1 4099 - https://pm-research.com/content/23/1/102.short 4100 - https://pm-research.com/content/23/1/102.full AB - The authors document the types of private debt investments made by fund managers into private firms across 25 countries from 2001–2010. Returns to private debt investments depend on lender (fund manager) characteristics, particularly portfolio size per manager, thus highlighting the role of time allocation for due diligence and monitoring. Also, investment returns are significantly related to borrower (firm-specific) risk. By contrast, market conditions, such as TED spreads, and country-level legal factors, such as creditor rights, are insignificantly or, at most, weakly related to returns. Market and legal conditions are nevertheless significantly related to private debt investment volumes and location.TOPICS: Real assets/alternative investments/private equity, fixed income and structured finance, fixed-income portfolio management