NEW YORK – July 17, 2024 – Global investment firms Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) and KKR (NYSE: KKR) today announced that one or more strategic partnerships comprised of funds and accounts managed by Carlyle and KKR’s respective credit businesses have agreed to purchase an approximately $10.1 billion portfolio of prime student loans from Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS).

“This acquisition highlights Carlyle’s proven expertise in private student loans and asset-backed finance, demonstrating our Global Credit business’s ability to provide scaled, tailored solutions to meet our clients’ dynamic needs,” said Akhil Bansal, Head of Credit Strategic Solutions at Carlyle. “As the lending space evolves, we believe private markets are well-positioned to offer financial institutions increased flexibility amidst this transformation.”

“We are pleased to leverage our scale, deep experience in ABF investing and capital markets capabilities to be a capital solutions provider of choice to financial institutions that are focusing on optimizing their balance sheets,” said RJ Madden, a Managing Director at KKR. “This transaction demonstrates the value that scaled private lenders can bring to key areas of the economy as the priorities of traditional lenders continue to evolve.”

“We’re very pleased to consummate this transaction with two outstanding strategic partners in Carlyle and KKR,” said Dan Capozzi, Executive Vice President and President of Consumer Banking at Discover. “This agreement represents an important milestone in our journey to simplify our operations and business mix.”

Carlyle’s investment in the portfolio was led by its Credit Strategic Solutions (“CSS”) team, a group within its Global Credit business focused on asset-backed investments. The highly experienced team seeks to leverage the knowledge, sourcing, structuring, and breadth of the entire Carlyle investment platform to deliver tailored asset-focused financing solutions to businesses, specialty finance companies, banks, asset managers, and other originators and owners of diversified pools of assets.

KKR’s investment in the portfolio comes primarily from its asset-based finance strategy and other credit vehicles and accounts.  KKR has made more than 80 ABF investments globally since 2016 through a combination of portfolio acquisitions, platform investments and structured investments. The firm has approximately $54 billion in ABF assets under management and a team of more than 50 professionals directly involved in the ABF effort globally.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2024 subject to customary closing conditions.

KKR Capital Markets and TCG Capital Markets structured and arranged the debt for the transaction. Monogram LLC, a portfolio company of Carlyle, will serve as portfolio manager for the student loan portfolio. Firstmark Services, a subsidiary of Nelnet, Inc. will service the loans in the portfolio. Sidley Austin LLP served as legal advisor to KKR and Carlyle. Paul Hastings LLP also served as a legal advisor to Carlyle and Clifford Chance LLP also served as a legal advisor to KKR. Wells Fargo served as exclusive financial advisor, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP served as legal counsel, to Discover Financial Services in connection with the transaction.

About Carlyle

Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit and Global Investment Solutions. With $425 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2024, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest. Carlyle employs more than 2,200 people in 28 offices across four continents. Further information is available at www.carlyle.com. For more, follow Carlyle on X and LinkedIn.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR’s insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com. For additional information about Global Atlantic Financial Group, please visit Global Atlantic Financial Group’s website at www.globalatlantic.com.

About Discover Financial 

Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) is a digital banking and payment services company with one of the most recognized brands in U.S. financial services. Since its inception in 1986, the company has become one of the largest card issuers in the United States. The company issues the Discover® card, America’s cash rewards pioneer, and offers personal loans, home loans, checking and savings accounts and certificates of deposit through its banking business. It operates the Discover Global Network® comprised of Discover Network, with millions of merchants and cash access locations; PULSE®, one of the nation’s leading ATM/debit networks; and Diners Club International®, a global payments network with acceptance around the world. For more information, visit www.discover.com/company.

Media Contacts:

For Carlyle:

Kristen Ashton

212-813-4763

Kristen.ashton@carlyle.com

For KKR:

Julia Kosygina

212-230-9722

media@kkr.com

For Discover Financial: 

Matthew Towson

224-405-5649

matthewtowson@discover.com

Coupa Pay customers can now pay suppliers via Premium ACH on Bottomline’s Paymode-X Business Payments Network

LAS VEGAS, NV and Portsmouth, NH—Coupa, the margin multiplier company, and Bottomline, a global leader in business payments, announced a strategic partnership to simplify digital payment processes for businesses. Coupa can now connect to Paymode-X, Bottomline’s business payments network that offers Premium ACH, to automate payments from buyers to suppliers.

Coupa Pay offers a single platform for managing all business payments across different countries and currencies. By utilizing the Premium ACH offering, customers will further optimize their payment stack, enhance payment security, receive more payment rebates, and improve their overall source-to-pay experience. Premium ACH is a powerful extension of the Coupa platform and requires no data or technology integration, or additional storage.

Leveraging the Paymode-X network’s leading fraud prevention capabilities, Coupa Pay will be able to offer enhanced security for payments made to suppliers who prefer to accept Premium ACH as a payment method.

With Premium ACH, suppliers receive enhanced data and reconciliation information, as well as rich reporting, and can lower their cost of payment acceptance. Providing this important data and reconciliation, Premium ACH helps strengthen relationships between payers and their suppliers.

“We are delighted to partner with a leader in source-to-pay (S2P) to modernize and fully digitize payment processes between buyers and suppliers. By integrating Paymode-X with Coupa Pay, payments are simplified for buyers and suppliers,” said Jeff Feuerstein, SVP Commercial & Payment Product Management, Paymode-X at Bottomline. “Coupa customers can unlock more value by paying suppliers using Premium ACH, which continues to drive increased value for members of the Paymode-X network.”

“Businesses today are all striving to deliver greater results with more efficiency. This partnership with Coupa and Bottomline optimizes payment processes and drives business results at scale. By automating the entire payment lifecycle through Bottomline’s secure payments network, businesses also benefit from stronger supplier relationships by improving payment timeliness and providing better data visibility,” said Bill Wardwell, General Manager of Coupa Pay and Treasury.

The partnership is the first launched through Bottomline’s network-as-a-service solution, announced last October. The new offering opens the Paymode-X network’s 550,000+ authenticated suppliers and the network’s proprietary Premium ACH payment type to Coupa Pay customers. Coupa Pay with Paymode-X will be generally available in May.

About Bottomline
Bottomline helps businesses transform the way they pay and get paid. A global leader in business payments and cash management, Bottomline’s secure, comprehensive solutions modernize payments for businesses and financial institutions globally. With over 30 years of experience, moving more than $10 trillion in payments annually, Bottomline is committed to driving impactful results for customers by reimagining business payments and delivering solutions that add to the bottom line. Bottomline is a portfolio company of Thoma Bravo, one of the largest software private equity firms in the world, with more than $130 billion in assets under management. For more information, visit www.bottomline.com. Bottomline and the Bottomline logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Bottomline Technologies, Inc.

About Coupa
Coupa® makes margins multiply through its community-generated AI and industry leading total spend management platform for businesses large and small. Coupa AI is informed by trillions of dollars of direct and indirect spend data across a global network of 10M+ buyers and suppliers. We empower you with the ability to predict, prescribe, and automate smarter, more profitable business decisions to improve operating margins. Coupa is the margin multiplier company™. Learn more at coupa.com and follow us on LinkedIn and X (Twitter).

Read the release on the Coupa website here and on the Bottomline website here.

The merger creates a pan-Indian retail banking franchise focused on financial inclusion

Partnership demonstrates commitment to providing relationship clients with capital and investing in high-return businesses

CLEVELAND, OH – Today, KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY, “Key”) announced a forward flow origination partnership with Blackstone Credit & Insurance (“Blackstone”) focused on Key’s Specialty Finance Lending (SFL) group. SFL is a leading asset-based lender serving clients nationally across middle market, growth capital, transportation, equipment, and other verticals. In connection with the partnership, Blackstone and Key closed a transaction on a seed portfolio of middle market fund finance facilities. Key will continue to originate, hold, and provide asset management services for new commitments across all sectors.

Randy Paine, Head of Key’s Institutional Bank said, “SFL is a highly successful business that has been organically built over the past 15 years to serve a dynamic and fast-growing client base with increasing financing needs. The partnership with Blackstone, a long-trusted participant in this sector, will accelerate the growth of the business and be mutually beneficial to all stakeholders, especially our clients.”

“Key’s SFL group is a strong franchise with deep relationships with originators,” said Rob Horn, Global Head of Infrastructure and Asset Based Credit at Blackstone. “We are pleased to have closed this initial transaction and look forward to growing the relationship with SFL.”

Advisors
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and KeyBanc Capital Markets served as advisors to KeyBank.

About KeyCorp
KeyCorp’s roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $188 billion at December 31, 2023. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,200 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications, and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com. KeyBank is Member FDIC.

About Blackstone
Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. We seek to deliver compelling returns for institutional and individual investors by strengthening the companies in which we invest. Our more than $1 trillion in assets under management include global investment strategies focused on real estate, private equity, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, credit, real assets, secondaries, and hedge funds. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow @blackstone on LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Instagram.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as “outlook,” “goal,” “objective,” “plan,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “project,” “believe,” “estimate” and other words of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements represent management’s current expectations and forecasts regarding future events. If underlying assumptions prove to be inaccurate or unknown risks or uncertainties arise, actual results could vary materially from these projections or expectations. Factors that could cause Key’s actual results to differ from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in KeyCorp’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, as well as in KeyCorp’s subsequent SEC filings, all of which have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are available on Key’s website (www.key.com/ir) and on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website (www.sec.gov). Forward looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and Key does not undertake any obligation to update the forward-looking statements to reflect new information or future events.

Contact
Elana Ferrari for KeyCorp
(412) 222-1476
elana_ferrari@keybank.com

Mariel Seidman-Gati for Blackstone
(646) 482-3712
mariel.seidmangati@blackstone.com

LONDON and NEW YORK (Feb. 27, 2024) — Barclays PLC (“Barclays”) and Blackstone Credit & Insurance (“Blackstone”) today announced that Barclays Bank Delaware (“BBDE”) has entered into an agreement with insurance accounts managed by Blackstone’s Asset Based Finance group, to sell approximately US$1.1 billion of currently outstanding credit card receivables (the “Transaction”) in relation to a defined set of Barclays-branded credit card accounts in the United States of America (the “Accounts”). This is the first in a series of activities Barclays plans to conduct to reduce its risk-weighted assets (RWAs) and create additional lending capacity for BBDE.

As part of the Transaction, BBDE will enter into a long-term strategic forward flow sale and servicing arrangement with Blackstone related to the Accounts. Blackstone’s investment will be made entirely on behalf of the firm’s insurance clients.

The Transaction remains subject to certain conditions and is expected to fund in Q1 2024.

Under the terms of the Transaction, BBDE will retain legal title in respect of the Accounts and BBDE will continue to service the Accounts for a fee. Barclays Bank PLC will invest into the Transaction alongside Blackstone’s insurance accounts.

The Transaction is expected to release approximately GBP£1.0 billion of RWAs on a post internal ratings-based (IRB) approach basis at the Barclays Group consolidated level⁽¹⁾. BBDE intends to use the proceeds of the sale to fund its lending activities.

Barclays Bank PLC, acting through its Investment Bank, served as exclusive structuring advisor to Blackstone in the transaction, to which it also served as risk retainer and liquidity facility provider.

Anna Cross, Group Finance Director at Barclays, said: “During our Investor Update, we said that we would leverage strategic partnerships to execute risk transfer agreements to reduce capital requirements. I am delighted to announce this first agreement in our US cards book.”

“We’re pleased to partner with an industry leader like Blackstone on this transaction that will help fund lending activities and support the long-term growth ambitions for our US Consumer Bank,” said Denny Nealon, CEO of Barclays US Consumer Bank and BBDE. “BBDE will continue to service the accounts, providing cardmembers with the high-level of service they have come to expect.”

Robert Horn, Global Head of Infrastructure & Asset Based Credit at Blackstone, said: “This collaboration demonstrates how we are supporting leading financial institutions with large-scale, long-term, efficient capital solutions in the asset based finance markets. Barclays has a premiere franchise in structured products and consumer banking and we look forward to working with them in the coming years to grow the partnership.”

(1) Subject to notification to and possible review by the Prudential Regulation Authority; the term “Barclays Group” refers to Barclays PLC together with its subsidiaries.

About Barclays
Our vision is to be the UK-centred leader in global finance. We are a diversified bank with comprehensive UK consumer, corporate and wealth and private banking franchises, a leading investment bank and a strong, specialist US consumer bank. Through these five divisions, we are working together for a better financial future for our customers, clients and communities. For further information about Barclays, please visit our website home.barclays.

About Blackstone
Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. We seek to deliver compelling returns for institutional and individual investors by strengthening the companies in which we invest. Our more than $1 trillion in assets under management include global investment strategies focused on real estate, private equity, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, credit, real assets, secondaries and hedge funds. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow @blackstone on LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Instagram.

Forward-looking statements
This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended, with respect to the Barclays Group. Barclays cautions readers that no forward-looking statement is a guarantee of future performance and that actual results or other financial condition or performance measures could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate only to historical or current facts. Forward-looking statements sometimes use words such as ‘may’, ‘will’, ‘seek’, ‘continue’, ‘aim’, ‘anticipate’, ‘target’, ‘projected’, ‘expect’, ‘estimate’, ‘intend’, ‘plan’, ‘goal’, ‘believe’, ‘achieve’ or other words of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs and expectations of Barclays’ directors, officers and employees and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual outcomes may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. In setting its targets and outlook for the period 2024-2026, Barclays has made certain assumptions about the macro-economic environment, including, without limitation, inflation, interest and unemployment rates, the different markets and competitive conditions in which Barclays operates, and its ability to grow certain businesses and achieve costs savings and other structural actions. Additional risks and factors which may impact the Barclays Group’s future financial condition and performance are identified in Barclays PLC’s filings with the US Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”) (including, without limitation, Barclays PLC’s Annual Report on Form 20-F for the financial year ended 31 December 2023 which is available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov). Subject to Barclays’ obligations under the applicable laws and regulations of any relevant jurisdiction (including, without limitation, the UK and the US), in relation to disclosure and ongoing information, Barclays undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information, please contact:

Barclays
Marina Shchukina, Investor Relations
+44 (0)7385 14 2673
Jon Tracey, Media Relations (U.K.)
+44 (0)7552 21 4868
Matthew Fields, Media Relations (U.S.)
+1 302 255 7807
Matthew.Fields@barclays.com

Blackstone
Kate Holderness
+1 917 318 6818