The capital markets advisory landscape has undergone a structural transformation over the past decade. Traditional bank lending has retreated, private credit has expanded to fill the gap. Extended private equity hold periods have created demand for non-sale liquidity solutions – continuation vehicles, GP stakes, NAV financing – that sit outside the product architecture of conventional investment banks. The winner of this year’s award has been building precisely for this moment.
Houlihan Lokey formally constituted its Capital Solutions Group during the review period through the merger of its Capital Markets and Private Funds divisions, creating a unified platform spanning four interconnected business lines: Debt Capital Solutions and Markets Advisory; Equity Capital Solutions, which includes GP-led secondaries and direct placements; Primary Capital Advisory; and GP Advisory.
The group totals more than 220 professionals – up from 30 a decade ago – across 18 offices in eight countries. In 2025, the platform advised on 154 transactions and raised $37 billion of capital for clients globally.
The organisational design reflects a deliberate strategic conviction: that the most complex capital needs can no longer be addressed through siloed products. The firm’s advisory-only positioning – no balance sheet, no proprietary capital, no principal risk – removes the conflicts that can distort advice at balance sheet institutions and ensures every recommendation is shaped solely by client objectives.
Deal track record
That model was tested most rigorously on the 7Ridge and Trading Technologies mandate. Acting as sole integrated advisor, the group executed three concurrent workstreams: a co-control stake sale to Thoma Bravo; an $835 million single-asset continuation vehicle, which closed within 10 .weeks of launch; and a senior secured credit facility for Trading Technologies. In parallel, the firm completed a $75 million GP-level facility for 7Ridge, collateralised by fund assets to support sponsor-level capital needs.
Further transactions illustrate the breadth. For Constellation Automotive Group, Europe’s largest digital used car marketplace, the group ran a competitive direct-lending process producing a £1.3 billion unitranche alongside a £240 million super-senior revolving credit facility and a £450 million equity injection from sponsor TDR Capital.
We have a very entrepreneurial, client-focused spirit that started in the middle market and has now scaled into a premier global franchise
Chris Dunlop
Industrials-focused Celsa Group had the firm advise on a €2.2 billion capital structure overhaul encompassing a debut bond, a subordinated HoldCo PIK, an equity injection, and a new revolving credit facility, managing rating agencies, global coordinator banks, and shareholders simultaneously.
For Coventry Capital, the group structured and placed mult multiple issuances of asset-backed notes building a repeatable securitisation programme in a bespoke and esoteric asset class. Acting as exclusive placement agent, Houlihan Lokey closed a $1.2 billion fund at hard cap within four months for Garnett Station Partners.
The ‘non-investment bank investment bank’
The firm’s approach to client satisfaction is structurally embedded rather than anecdotally reported. A net promoter score of 73 – derived from more than 700 independent client interviews and disclosed publicly – stands without direct comparison among investment banking advisory firms. Ninety-five percent of clients report satisfaction with their transaction outcome; 96% confirm that the firm understands their specific needs. In Europe, 80% to 90% of mandates carry performance-related incentive fee components, and those fees are almost invariably paid, including on transactions where market conditions constrained outcomes.
“I sometimes used to refer to us as the non-investment bank investment bank,” says Chris Dunlop, global co-head of capital solutions. “We have a very entrepreneurial, client-focused spirit that started in the middle market and has now scaled into a premier global franchise. Our success has been underpinned by Houlihan Lokey’s broad platform, where managing directors partner across every geography, sector, and product, backed by absolute commitment from senior leadership to invest in the business.”
The research programme reinforces the advisory offering. The MidCapMonitor – a quarterly analysis of pan-European private equity-sponsored unitranche activity drawing on HL’s Private Credit DataBank, sourced from the firm’s portfolio valuation and fund advisory services practice – has become a standard practitioner reference for benchmarking European private credit terms.
The LP Compass, a first-of-its-kind survey of 58 of the world’s most active secondary-market participants, and the “Crosswinds” Growth Investor Survey of 90 leading growth equity managers representing more than $3 trillion in assets under management, extend that intelligence across adjacent private markets.
Houlihan Lokey wins this award not because it is the largest capital markets advisory firm by headcount or volume – it is not – but because, across a year of significant market volatility, it demonstrated that integration, independence and a verifiable culture of client alignment can consistently produce stronger outcomes than scale alone.
