Cordet Capital
An independent Northern European direct lender writing senior secured and unitranche facilities of roughly £4m to £25m, with genuine appetite for sponsorless borrowers and conservative leverage.
What they do
Cordet Capital lends from its own direct lending funds across the UK, Ireland, the Nordics, Germany and Benelux, with around eighteen professionals in London, Luxembourg and Stockholm. Facilities are senior secured or structured unitranche, typically requiring around £2m of EBITDA, with a deliberately low-leverage, covenanted approach: the target return comes from margin and structure rather than from stretching the multiple. Its second fund closed above €500m and more than €750m has been deployed across thirty-five investments.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
Sponsorless capability is rarer among institutional funds than the marketing suggests, and this manager both publishes guidance on it and lends that way. For an owner-managed business at the top of a £3–15m raise, particularly one with operations spanning the UK and northern Europe, it offers fund flexibility without the leverage-maximising instincts of a sponsor-focused lender.
Where they are not the fit
Facilities below around €5m are out of scope, which excludes the bottom of the band. The low-leverage discipline cuts both ways: a borrower whose plan depends on a high multiple will get further with a fund that underwrites that way. Returns are enhanced with fees and occasionally warrants, so the all-in cost needs comparing on a total basis rather than on margin alone.
Published terms
- Pricing
- As bps; Fund III target gross IRR ~12-14% via higher margins on low leverage plus structured fees/warrants; above bank senior
- Speed to terms
- Not published
- EBITDA floor
- From about £2m
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Both - genuine sponsorless capability plus sponsored (publishes sponsored-vs-sponsorless guidance; 'all-weather investor')
- Where they lend
- Northern Europe - UK, Ireland, Nordics, DACH, Benelux (London HQ 2 St James's Market)
- How they decide
- An investment committee-led fund, co-managing partners; ~18 professionals across London/Luxembourg/Stockholm; Aztec Group fund admin/depositary (Funds II & III, Nov 2025). Every facility goes to credit committee
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
As published by the lender and last reviewed June 2026. Terms quoted on a deal are set by the credit, not by a published band.
The desks that lend
Cordet Capital lends through 2 separate books. Which one reads a deal decides the security, the covenant package and the band, so the question is rarely whether Cordet Capital lends, but which of these would own it.
Senior secured direct lending
- Facility
- £4m to £25m
- Security
- Debenture or senior secured
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · MBO · Refinance
- Rules out
- Sub-€5m tickets out of scope; Low-leverage/low-loan to value discipline
Direct lending plus+ (unitranche-style structured)
- Facility
- £4m to £25m
- Security
- Senior secured + warrants/structured fees
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · MBO · Refinance
- Rules out
- Target gross IRR ~12-14% via enhanced pricing/warrants
Limits that apply across the firm
Stated limits, taken from Cordet Capital’s own published criteria, beyond the ones each desk carries above. A limit is where a lender starts from, not where it always ends: several of these move on a strong enough credit.
- No appetite in adult, gambling or weapons
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling is £25m; 18 of the 46 private-credit funds here go at least as high.
- 15 of the 46 publish an indicative price at all; it is one of them.
Counted across the 46 private-credit & direct-lending funds in this directory, on what each one publishes. What a lender discloses and what it will do are different things.
Questions this page answers
How large a facility does Cordet Capital write?
Published facilities run £4m to £25m. It looks for EBITDA from about £2m. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
Does Cordet Capital lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. Cordet Capital lends to owner-managed and sponsor-backed borrowers alike, so a company with no private-equity backer is not out of scope on that ground.
Where does Cordet Capital lend?
Northern Europe - UK, Ireland, Nordics, DACH, Benelux (London HQ 2 St James's Market).
What covenants does Cordet Capital set?
Maintenance covenants, tested every period. A covenant package is negotiated on the facility; the published style is where the negotiation starts.
What does Cordet Capital lend?
The published product set is senior secured direct lending, direct lending plus+.
On the record
December 2024: unitranche financing for Maguar Capital acquisition of hsbcad (construction software) (cordet.com / Latham & Watkins.
November 2025: Aztec Group appointed fund admin/depositary Funds II & III (Aztec.
April 2025: CORDET Direct Lending III SCSp registered, Luxembourg (Bloomberg LEI.
Sources: cordet.com · cfi.co
This profile is a curated reference note drawn from public sources, not financial advice or a recommendation. Appetite and terms change; a lender's fit for a given credit is established by approaching it, not inferred from a page.