Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Organization

v3.23.3
Organization
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2023
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Organization Organization
HPS Corporate Lending Fund (the “Company” or “HLEND”) is a Delaware statutory trust that was formed on December 23, 2020 and commenced operations on February 3, 2022. The Company seeks to invest primarily in newly originated senior secured debt and other securities of private U.S. companies within the upper middle market. The Company is a non-diversified, closed-end management investment company that has elected to be regulated as a business development company (“BDC”) under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”). Prior to June 30, 2023, the Company was externally managed by HPS Investment Partners, LLC (the “Administrator”, or “HPS,” or the “Adviser” for relevant actions taken as a result of its former status as the Company’s investment adviser prior to June 30, 2023). On June 30, 2023, the Company entered into an Amended and Restated Investment Advisory Agreement (the “Investment Advisory Agreement”) with HPS Advisors, LLC (for actions and references starting June 30, 2023, the “Adviser”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of HPS, and HPS in connection with a corporate reorganization of the investment advisory operations with respect to the Company. The Adviser operates as a consolidated subsidiary of HPS and has access to the same resources and investment personnel for management of the Company as HPS. In addition, investment advisory personnel and portfolio managers for the Company will provide the same services to the Company through the Adviser as were provided through HPS. The Company has elected to be treated for federal income tax purposes, and intends to qualify annually thereafter, as a regulated investment company (“RIC”) as defined under Subchapter M of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”).

The Company’s investment objective is to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns, predominately in the form of current income, with select investments exhibiting the ability to capture long-term capital appreciation. The Company seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing primarily in newly originated, privately negotiated senior credit investments in high quality, established upper middle market companies, and in select situations, companies in special situations. Upper middle market companies generally mean companies with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”) of $75 million to $1 billion annually or $250 million to $5 billion in revenue annually at the time of investment.
The Company has and may continue to invest in smaller or larger companies if the opportunity presents attractive investment and risk-adjusted returns. In addition to corporate level obligations, the Company’s investments in such companies may also opportunistically include private asset-based financings such as equipment financings, financings against mission-critical corporate assets and mortgage loans, and/or investments that represent equity in portfolios of loans, receivables or other debt instruments. The Company may also selectively make investments that represent equity in portfolios of loans, receivables or other debt instruments. The Company may also participate in programmatic investments through partnerships or joint ventures with one or more unaffiliated banks or other financial institutions, including structures where a partner assumes senior exposure to each investment, and the Company participates in the junior exposure.
The Company’s investment strategy also includes a smaller allocation to more liquid credit investments such as broadly syndicated loans and corporate bonds. This allocation may also include senior secured loans, senior secured bonds, high yield bonds and structured credit instruments.
The strategy of the Company primarily focuses on companies in the United States, but also intends to leverage the Adviser’s presence to invest in companies in Europe, Australia and other locations outside the U.S. In addition, the Company may also invest in publicly traded securities of larger corporate issuers on an opportunistic basis when market conditions create compelling potential return opportunities, subject to compliance with BDC requirements to invest at least 70% of assets in “eligible portfolio companies.”
The Company offers on a continuous basis up to $8.0 billion of Common Shares of beneficial interest pursuant to an offering registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Offering”). The Company offers to sell any combination of four classes of Common Shares, Class S shares, Class I shares, Class D shares, and Class F shares, with a dollar value up to the maximum offering amount. The share classes have different ongoing shareholder servicing and/or distribution fees. The initial purchase price for the Common Shares of beneficial interest was $25.00 per share. Thereafter, the purchase price per share for each class of Common Shares equals the net asset value (“NAV”) per share, as of the effective date of the monthly share purchase date. Emerson Equity LLC (the “Managing Dealer”) will use its best efforts to sell shares, but is not obligated to purchase or sell any specific amount of shares in the offering. The Company may also engage in private offerings of its Common Shares.
The Company accepted purchase orders and held investors’ funds in an interest-bearing escrow account until the Company received purchase orders for at least $100.0 million, excluding shares purchased by HPS, its affiliates and trustees and officers but including any shares purchased in any private offering, in any combination of purchases of Class S shares, Class I shares, Class D shares,
and Class F shares, and the Company’s Board of Trustees (the Board) authorized the release of funds in the escrow account. As of February 3, 2022, the Company had satisfied the minimum offering requirement and commenced its operations after the Company’s Board had authorized the release of proceeds from escrow. As of such date, the Company issued and sold 20,437,880 shares (consisting of 7,074,280 Class I shares, 1,268,000 Class D shares, and 12,095,600 Class F shares at an offering price of $25.00 per share), and the escrow agent released net proceeds of $510.9 million to the Company as payment for such shares. There were no Class S shares issued on such date.