Arrow's €5.2bn haul rewards the legacy-book trade

Arrow Global closed the second quarter with €15.5bn under management, a jump of €4.8bn, or 44 per cent, year on year, as its credit strategy took in €5.2bn of commitments over the trailing twelve months. Zach Lewy, founder, chief executive and chief investment officer, described the period in the release as "defined by strong fundraising momentum," crediting the firm's vertically integrated model, its 27 local platforms and its ability to source asset-backed opportunities across fragmented European markets. But the number beside that raise is the one that shows what the money is for: Arrow invested €1.7bn in the first half of 2026, barely above the €1.6bn it deployed in the same stretch last year.

The headline investment was not a new loan but the purchase of 65 per cent of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board's remaining C$1bn (£529m) European mortgage portfolio, legacy paper bought rather than newly underwritten risk. Set against the €5.2bn raised in twelve months, the €1.7bn deployed in six months suggests the strategy's next chapter will look more like buying than lending; as this publication has argued, asset sales and portfolio exits are the new deployment, and Arrow's quarter is the buy-side proof.

The seller was CPP Investments, which days earlier had posted its strongest quarter in more than a decade while committing US$1bn to Blackstone's private credit fund. The two moves together describe a rotation: pension capital moving toward freshly committed US private credit while a European specialist with local sourcing platforms takes the other side of an aging book. It is allocation shifting from one vintage of credit to the next, with the older paper landing on a balance sheet built to work it out.

The realised record is what carries the pitch. Arrow has distributed €0.4bn to limited partners in 2026, its Credit Opportunities programme reports a 17 per cent net deal IRR, and total realisations exceed €3.6bn — the cash arithmetic on which the €5.2bn of commitments rests. Lewy also flagged a Milan buildout across origination, planning, project management and development, and the insurance arm folded in Fusion Specialty Group, a specialist managing general agent, a deal that gives the firm a second capital channel beside LP commitments. The test is whether that supply arrives at the prices the 17 per cent IRR was built on.