NEWPORT BEACH, CA--(Marketwired - Dec 7, 2016) - PIMCO, a leading global investment management firm, has entered into a joint venture with Solar Capital Partners as the firm continues to develop and expand its private credit platform.

Solar Capital Partners is an experienced and highly respected investor in private corporate credit with a successful 10-year track record of making private loans to corporate borrowers. The firm also has an extensive network of relationships with middle market borrowers and private equity sponsors.

PIMCO is a leading alternatives manager with more than $27 billion in alternative assets with a significant presence in private corporate credit across a range of strategies. This joint venture is the result of collaboration between PIMCO and Solar Capital Partners that began in 2014.

Emmanuel Roman, PIMCO's Chief Executive Officer, said: "This joint venture is a continuation of the disciplined expansion of PIMCO's alternatives' strategies since 2004, where we have sought to capitalize on targeted market opportunities by leveraging PIMCO's broad investment expertise and long-term performance focus."

Dan Ivascyn, Group Chief Investment Officer of PIMCO, added: "We believe the combination of Solar Capital Partners' proven credit underwriting and relationships matched with PIMCO's global credit investment experience creates a superior ability in sourcing, evaluating, and underwriting private investments. We believe that private credit is an attractive super-secular opportunity."

Michael Gross, Co-Founder of Solar Capital Partners, said: "We are excited about expanding our partnership with PIMCO and the depth of resources they can bring to our investment process. We believe that a well-managed, private direct corporate lending strategy has the potential to provide an attractive risk-adjusted yield premium relative to public credit investments."

"Together with the two publicly-traded Business Development Companies that we manage, Solar Capital Ltd. and Solar Senior Capital Ltd., our joint venture with PIMCO can provide us with significant scale to deliver full solutions to our clients," said Bruce Spohler, Co-Founder of Solar Capital Partners.

About PIMCO

PIMCO is a leading global investment management firm, with offices in 12 countries throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Founded in 1971, PIMCO offers a wide range of innovative solutions to help millions of investors worldwide meet their needs. Our goal is to provide attractive returns while maintaining a strong culture of risk management and long-term discipline. PIMCO is owned by Allianz S.E., a leading global diversified financial services provider.

About Solar Capital Partners

Solar Capital Partners is an SEC-registered investment advisor that provides financing solutions to leveraged, middle market companies predominantly located in the United States. Currently, Solar Capital Partners serves as the investment advisor to two publicly-traded Business Development Companies, Solar Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ: SLRC) (www.solarcapltd.com) and Solar Senior Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ: SUNS) (www.solarseniorcap.com), and separately managed accounts. Investable capital across the entities Solar Capital Partners currently manages totals more than $4 billion. Since its formation in 2006, Solar Capital Partners has invested approximately $5.8 billion in over 255 different portfolio companies with more than 165 private equity sponsors.

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including the performance of financial markets, the investment performance of PIMCO's sponsored investment products and separately managed accounts, general economic conditions, future acquisitions, competitive conditions and government regulations, including changes in tax laws. Readers should carefully consider such factors. Further, such forward-looking statements speak only on the date at which such statements are made. PIMCO undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements.