Private Credit PIK Usage Nears Four-Year High: Lincoln (Correct)

The share of private credit borrowers that deferred at least some of their cash interest payments surged in the second quarter to the highest in almost four years, pointing to growing stress in the $1.7 trillion market, according to data from valuation firm Lincoln International.

The percentage of debt investments with some sort of payment-in-kind increased to 11.4% in the quarter, according to Lincoln. That compares with 7.4% in the third quarter of 2021, when the firm began tracking the data.

About half of that is considered “bad” PIK by Lincoln, which defines this as borrowers that started deferring ...